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UNITED STATES OF A^ERftA. 



MEMOIK 

OF 

EBENEZER FISHER, D.D. 



BY 

GEORGE h! EMERSON, D.D. 




BOSTON: 
UNIVERSALIST PUBLISHING HOUSE. 
1880. 



Copyright, 1880, 
By Universalis! Publishing House. 



University Press: 
John Wilson and Son, Cambridge. 



TO 

ftije aiumnt 

OF THE 

CANTON THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL, 

PARTICULARLY THE MEMEERS THEREOF WHO ARE NOW ACTIVE IN 
THE MINISTRY OF THE UNIVERSALIST CHURCH, WHO CHERISH 
THE MEMORY OF EBENEZER FISHER AS THEIR GREAT 
INSTRUCTOR, COUNSELLOR, AND FRIEND, 

^Ttjis Uolume 



PEEF ACE. 



HEN the word came to me that the Alumni of the Canton 



V V Theological School had, by formal vote, entrusted the prep- 
aration of a biography of the late Kev. Ebenezer Fisher, D.D., to 
my hands, I gratefully confess that I felt honored. But I shrank 
from the task. In the midst of duties that press without inter- 
mission, I feared that I might not be able to gather the essential 
facts and present them in the form and proportions of a volume. 
Yet I reflected that of the living probably no one save those who 
have been professionally associated with him knew Dr. Fisher so in- 
timately as myself. For thirty years we had been friends, mutually 
trusting and trusted. I resolved to attempt the work. The result 
is the book herewith submitted. 

In many regards, I have found the task a difficult one. I have 
discovered that witnesses, even if honest and intelligent, may differ 
in their statements of fact ; that official records are often at vari- 
ance ; and that different memories recall not only different but con- 
flicting incidents. Yet I trust that no essential error of fact mars 
the general accuracy of this history : it is inevitable that in inci- 
dental detail an occasional error will escape detection. I have — to 
give two or three examples — discovered that intelligent memories 
are not in full accord as to the school-house which Dr. Fisher, when 
a boy, first entered as a scholar ; as to his age when he became a 
convert to the Universalist faith ; and as to some minor phases of 
the theological beliefs of his parents. But in regard to events and 
experiences which are vital to a proper appreciation of the boy and 
the man, I have found essential agreement. I believe that this book, 




vi 



PREFACE. 



in its general quality and in the impression it leaves, will be found 
every way reliable. It has been my constant study to make it so. 

I have found the toil exacting, yet I confess it has proved, in its 
general preparation, a pleasant, almost an enviable, task. At times 
I have felt very near the great and good man who for thirty years 
was my constant friend, — never more so than when we differed as 
to opinions and methods. The theme has at times cast its spell over 
me. It has almost seemed that he was a companion by my side, — 
that I could look into his noble face and hear his kind, sympathetic 
word. I arise from my labor of love, grateful for the quickening 
which must come from dwelling so continually upon the congenial 
theme. I give the testimony that I have grown to a more profound 
appreciation of his great work, and of his marvellous fitness for its 
responsibilities. I shall ever be grateful that his living students 
have by formal act pronounced my name worthy to stand beneath 
that of Ebenezer Fisher, on the same title-page. 

In the body of the work I have indicated the parties who have 
been of special service to me, not alone in reporting information for 
my use, but in some instances in giving shape to the recital. But 
for their very copious and sympathetic aid, this volume could not 
have been prepared. 

May I record the hope that the subject-matter of this book, if not 
its form, will secure for it sympathetic, appreciative readers ; that 
through the trials, anxieties, and final triumphs it records, they will 
be led into a deeper apprehension of the importance — the indispen- 
sable necessity — of that institutional work in the founding of which 
Dr. Fisher did a lion's share. 

In the time of great need, providential men are raised up. Such 
was Martin Luther. Such was Hosea Ballou. I make no doubt 
that the faithful verdict of time will proclaim that such was 
Ebenezer Fisher. 

Upon this humble tribute to his memory I humbly and reverently 
invoke the Divine favor. May it go forth on a mission of good to 
the world. 

G. H. E. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAP. PAGB 

I. Childhood and Youth 1 

II. Led towards the Ministry 18 

III. Enters the Ministry 33 

IV. The Salem Pastorate 47 

V. The Essex Ministerial Circle .... 71 

VI. The Pastorate at South Dedham ... 83 

VII. The Universalist Movement 89 

VIII. First Efforts to Found a Theological 

School 101 

IX. The Theological School established . 108 

X. The Call to Canton 120 

XI. Dark Days 131 

XII. A Crisis . . 144 

XIII. The War Crisis 160 

XIV. Minor Crises 175 

XV. Within the School 185 

XVI. Without the School ........ 191 

XVII. Within the Home 194 

XVIII. Friends of the Institution 203 

XIX. Closing Years 207 

XX. "Last of Earth " 211 

XXI. Tributes 219 

XXII. Analysis of Character 227 



Appendix ... 243 



i 
I 



MEMOIR 

OF 

EBENEZEE FISHEK. 

CHAPTER I. 

CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 

The Country and the City. — The Fisher Family : from Dedham, 
Mass. — A Down-east " Plantation " : a Wilderness. — A Specu- 
lation. — A Sequel. — " Always a Man." — A Portable School. — 
The Parents. — Wilderness Life. — The Bears. — First Memory. — 
Savage Neighbors. — The " Cat and Clay " Chimney. — The 
" Coal Mine." — " Going to Market." — Primitive Travel. — An 
Incident. — No Supper wanted. — Literary Facilities. — Geo- 
graphical Mysteries. — A Quilting Bee. — A Poem. — The Scholar 
of the Plantation. 

TT is a trite proverb with writers on the philosophy 
of civilization, that the city is dependent upon the 
country. Historical critics habitually remind us that 
Rome the city was constantly replenished by Rome the 
empire. The effeminacy, the social corruption, the 
moral laxity, the dearth of patriotism, and the lack 
of the heroic spirit incidental to the opulence, luxuries, 
and temptations of the great metropolis, would have 
wrought its destruction before a Caesar was born, had 
not the rough, energetic, hardy vitality of the provinces 
replenished the waste, and kept intact the heart of the 



2 



MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



" body-politic." If great men are drawn to the city, 
they come from the distant villages, — such is said to 
be the law of social and political progress. 

If due allowance be made for exceptions, — which 
we know are not infrequent, — it is evident, and 
the fact is easily accounted for, that the rule is here 
correctly enunciated. The average man is weak in the 
presence of temptation. What ought to be helps are 
often found to be hinderances. The men who make 
their mark upon their age are, as a very general rule, 
those who have made their opportunities and conquered 
difficulties. 

The character I shall attempt to describe in these 
pages certainly furnishes no exception to the rule which 
I have so briefly stated. I am to sketch a career 
that began on the rugged Atlantic coast, in a neighbor- 
hood which at that time had no township name ; when 
the university was a " portable school," — one moved 
from house to house, like its teacher " boarding around," 
— where the gas-light was that of the blazing back-log, 
and where books and periodicals were few. I doubt 
not that the intellectuality and integrity of that char- 
acter were constitutional ; but its heroism, of purpose 
was evoked in the conflict with obstacles, which uni- 
formly elevate the soul that rises above them or con- 
verts them into incitements and helps. 

Ebenezer Fisher, the subject of this memoir, was 
born in Plantation Number Three, now Charlotte, 



CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 



3 



Washington County, in the State of Maine, on the 
sixth day of February, 1815. His father was Ebenezer 
Fisher, born in Francistown, New Hampshire. His 
mother was Sally Johnson, born in Sharon, Massachu- 
setts. He was the second of eight children. When 
in later years Mr. Fisher became the pastor of the 
Universalist Church in what was then South Dedham, 
Massachusetts (since named Norwood), the fact was 
noted, and caused the remark in the town, that by a 
strange coincidence he had literally returned to the 
home of his fathers. The Fisher family from which 
Ebenezer came was a Dedham family. In a memorial 
sermon occasioned by Dr. Fisher's death, preached in 
the Norwood (South Dedham) Universalist Church, 
the Rev. George Hill, the pastor, said : "I am told by 
relatives of the Fisher family, that the grandfather of 
Ebenezer belonged to the Dedham Fisher family, and 
lived in Dedham South Parish, his house standing on 
the spot now covered by Deacon Hartshorn's stable, he 
being one of the original settlers of this portion of the 
old township of Dedham." 

I have since verified the accuracy of this statement. 
Samuel Fisher, of Canton, Massachusetts, a cousin of 
Ebenezer Fisher, and three years his senior, gives 
me the genealogy of the Fishers for five generations. 
David Fisher, with whom all knowledge of the family 
begins, lived in Dedham (the south part, now, as I 
have said, known as Norwood) . This is the only fact 
known in regard to him. Where he came from, at 



4 



MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER, 



what period he came to Dedham, or whether he was 
bom there, and what was his history. — these are par- 
ticulars in regard to which nothing has come down to us. 
His son. also named David, married Abigail Lewis, 
and with his wife went to live in Sharon, in the same 
State. The son of this David had the same name. Mr. 
Samuel Fisher, my authority and informant, adds, 
" The family was of the line of David." The third 
David married Mehetable Hewins, of Sharon, and went 
to Farmingi;on. Maine, and made that place his home. 
Ebenezer. the father of the subject of this sketch, was 
the son of David and Mehetable. The Scripture order 
was unbroken. The " line of David" was kept up. A 
second son of David and Mehetable received the same 
name as that of his father. Ebenezer and David, the 
brothers, went to Plantation Number Three, Maine. 
Samuel Fisher, my informant, was this David's son, and 
was born on the plantation. Ebenezer, whose history 
I am to give, was the son of Ebenezer, as stated above. 
Hence, in the Scripture style, I can make the record: 
tk Ebenezer. who was the son of Ebenezer, who was 
the son of David, who was the son of David, who was 
the son of David ! " And, so far. every name is, after 
the manner of the early times, taken from some Scrip- 
ture personage. 

At the time of the removal of the two brothers, Ebe- 
nezer and David (the father and the uncle) , to the plan- 
tation, the whole region was literally a 4 4 howling 
wilderness." The bears and other wild beasts roamed 



CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 



5 



at will. It was about six miles from sea, and no mar- 
ket nearer than Eastport, some fourteen miles distant. 
It was an uncleared forest. The land had in some way 
become the possession of a Boston speculator by the 
name of Coates. He had it surveyed off into sections of 
160 acres or a half-mile square and numbered. To 
tempt people to make so unattractive a region their 
home, Mr. Coates held out "inducements." He prom- 
ised to give certain squares or "plantations," as by a 
fearful stretch of metaphor he called them, for a sum 
merely nominal to parties who, in taking possession, 
would clear the forest, cultivate the land, and build. 
The soil itself was good. Potatoes and wheat would 
make a good yield. The offer touched the nomadic 
propensity always strong in New England. A farm of 
one hundred and sixty acres for a sum ' c merely nomi- 
nal," was a prize not to be slighted. Mr. Coates had 
no difficulty in finding families eager to accept his en- 
terprising and, as it seemed, generous offer.* 

But these migratory schemes too often have a sequel 
not anticipated. Long before the wilderness became a 
farm, in the midst of the slow and arduous transforma- 
tion, Mr. Coates failed. It was then discovered by the 
settlers that procrastination in taking title-deeds had 
been extended too far. In fact, they were held for the 
market price of every acre ! Those who were ever able 
to pay were compelled to do so. The two Fishers, in- 
stead of feasting their imaginations on a home all their 
own, found themselves forced to the alternative of 



6 



MEMOIR OF EBEXEZER FISHER. 



either losing the fruits of what, by great privation and 
industry, they had already secured, or else accepting the 
hard and unanticipated conditions of paying in full for 
the land that had been given theru. They accepted the 
hard lot : and. by depriving themselves even of comforts, 
they paid every dollar of the legal yet hardly just 
claim. 

The lack of sentimentalism in the character of Dr. 
Fisher. — of which lack examples in point will appear in 
this narrative. — which was so noticeable to all who had 
his intimate acquaintance, was. I am led to infer, inher- 
ited from his father. I asked Mr. Samuel Fisher for 
particulars in regard to his boyhood. His reply was : 
" Ebenezer never was a boy. He was always a man. 
Ever in his plays and freaks of humor, he was sedate, 
thoughtful, and manly." An instance of his early 
manly proclivity is pertinent here. 

The practice of giving boys ;i stints," as they were 
called — that is. assigning them a given amount of 
work for a given amount of time, all the time left after 
the specified work was done being theirs for their own 
use or play — was customary on the plantation. But this 
custom did not have the approval of the elder Fisher. 
The son had no time that was his own. and no oppor- 
tunity to get any. Hence, in working in the field he 
had a device of his own for gaining a few minutes for his 
personal use. He would hurry with his hoe and get to 
the end of the " row" ahead of his father, and the few- 
minutes of waiting he employed in a way that I imagine 



CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 



1 



few boys could be induced to practise. He would lie 
upon the ground, book in hand, refreshing his memory 
with what he had before studied, or else extend his 
reading. So absorbed would he become, that the quiet 
approach of his father at times failed to divert his at- 
tention. The instinct of the student was in him ; in 
which regard, I hardly need say, the boy was father to 
the man. 

It will be believed that the opportunities for an edu- 
cation were very limited. Three months in the winter 
was the maximum. The school-house at the first, I 
have said, " boarded around." It is a literal fact : the 
school was held in private houses, and was moved from 
one to another, and the proportional share of the com- 
mon burden was discharged by the several families. 
At a somewhat later date, the rapid progress of the new 
civilization had a school-house proper, in which the 
young Ebenezer was a scholar. In going to the school, 
the distance was often great ; and the boy found the 
journey a tr}<ing one. He was not a son of fortune. 
His clothing was scanty and thin. Later in life, he viv- 
idly remembered, with almost a return of the shivering 
sensation, the sufferings of those early days while on 
the road between his home and the school. 

The son had one advantage of great moment. Both 
his father and mother were persons of marked intellec- 
tual gifts, and of high and firm moral principles. The 
mentality of the father was very marked. Evidently 
he was a man born to have position and influence. He 



s 



MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



owned the mills, and employed several laborers. He 
was the Justice of the Peace, the plantation magistrate. 
He was the inn-keeper, and the inn kept and sold what 
in those days every inn was expected to keep and sell. 
He was the Post-master, his house or inn being the 
office. He was in fact the "grand seignior" of the 
Plantation, a patriarchal man ; in which regard his more 
distinguished son £ ' took after him " in a remarkable 
degree. The son, let me digress to add, with his 
sound moral nature and his observing mind, got his 
temperance principles from what he saw of the effects 
of strong drink upon the patrons of the inn. 

I infer that in the son's early and almost passionate 
love of books — rather of reading, for the two loves are 
not identical — he has been " a mother's boy." Mrs. 
Fisher's passion for reading was indeed extraordinary ; 
and this passion in her case was the expression of an 
intellectual force not less extraordinary. The post- 
office kept in her house was the special opportunity 
thus put in her way. It was improved to the uttermost. 
No open reading-matter passed out of the office — and 
but little passed through — till it had first gone through 
the alembic of her brain. Though taxed to the strength 
of the average woman in attending to the duties of her 
household, her Napoleonic ability to dispense with sleep 
stood her well in stead. It was no uncommon thing 
for this woman to sit up till the first hours of morning, 
poring over and drinking in the contents of papers 
and pamphlets. If the subject-matter was very inter- 



CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 



9 



esting and voluminous, the hour of three in the morning 
not unfrequently found her hard at the task of master- 
ing their contents. Few heads, and still fewer bodies, 
are equal to such a strain ; but Mrs. Fisher found in 
the task refreshment not less than knowledge. That 
she was an ardent debater, tenacious of her opinions, 
and withal an enthusiast in politics, the reader will not 
be surprised to learn. Had woman suffrage been a 
question in her day and community, she would have 
been not only in its favor, but its earnest champion and 
leader for all the region round. But the politics of 
her day, though dealing with such dry topics as banks 
and tariffs, were full of interest to her ; and she was 
read} T to debate them, and maintain a part} r opinion in 
regard to them, with any person, man or woman, who 
put the challenge in her way. And she was not easily 
crushed in argument. That strong men, with hardly an 
exception, have had strong mothers, has a most nota- 
ble example in this tough-brained reader and debater 
in the post-office of Plantation Number Three. 

I have said that the plantation in name, was in fact 
a wilderness. It was one of those very sterile regions, 
far removed from the large and affluent centres of civil- 
ization, that test the endurance and compel the industry 
and the economy of the early settlers. Most of the 
population, at the date of Mr. Fisher's childhood, immi- 
grated from Massachusetts and New Hampshire, bring- 
ing with them the "district school" and the sturdy 
courage of the New-Englander. They could not 



10 MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 

transform the wilderness into a garden, nor transplant 
academies and colleges ; but they managed to secure for 
their children better facilities than are usually found 
under circumstances so unpropitious. But, at the best, 
they must have been poor and very limited. The Gaz- 
etteer of 1850 puts the entire population of Charlotte, 
which name had been given to the plantation, at about 
seven hundred. At the time of Mr. Fisher's boyhood, 
the number must have been much smaller. A few hun- 
dred persons, including children, scattered over so large 
a territory, can hardly be said to make a neighborhood. 
It was a wilderness just emerged from the primary 
condition. Indeed, the enemy prowling by midnight 
was not the burglar and the robber : it was the bear of 
the forest. The loaded gun was in readiness, not for 
wicked men, but for devouring beasts. 

The bears indeed roamed almost at will over the 
country, preying upon the sheepfold, or whatever 
seemed of less strength than their own, that came 
within their range. The gun was always accessible, 
loaded and primed, not to protect the man or woman, 
for the bears usually quailed before the human gaze, 
but to protect the piggery, the hen-coop, and the 
sheepfold. TVomen at night would be gathered around 
the great log fire, sewing or knitting by the light of 
the candle, to be startled, not by the apparition but the 
literal appearance of a bear resting his paws upon the 
window-sill, placing his nose upon the glass, and most 
impudently gazing upon the human group within ! The 



CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 



11 



women would then give the alarm. The men would 
run to the well-charged musket ; and Bruin, foreseeing 
trouble, would run to the woods. But it was only by 
constant diligence that the live-stock of the premises 
were protected against the strange invader. 

An incident illustrative of this border life was often 
related by Mr. Fisher. In his childhood, it startled him, 
and he retained the memory with almost a romantic 
vividness. One da} r , while standing in his father's door- 
yard, a strange, moaning, deathly sound saluted his 
ear. He was transfixed with fright. He knew what it 
signified, and he trembled in terror. Soon the men of 
the neighborhood, what few there were, started with 
quickened pace, and gun in hand. In due time the re- 
port of the weapon told that the crisis was passed. The 
men returned in triumph. A bear of sufficient size and 
strength had seized a heifer : the groan that filled the 
air was the poor creature expressing agon}\ But Bruin 
paid for his temerity with his life. Mr. Fisher used to 
recount this as the first event he could remember. 

Less annoying was the not very welcome companion- 
ship of savage men. Large bodies of Passamaquoddy 
Indians had their wigwams on or near the plantation. 
The}^ had the most primitive manners of the tribe. They 
never sat at table, and never made use of knives and 
forks. But they were harmless and occasioned no fear. 
Still they were not just the kind of neighbors the aver- 
age Saxon is disposed to covet. 

The houses, whether of boards or of logs, I may 



12 



MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



here add, had no accompaniment of brick. The chim- 
ney was indeed laid in " courses," but the courses were 
sticks filled with clay, very much like the cob-houses of 
juvenile creation, only they were cemented with the 
clayey soil. The technical name was the 64 cat and 
clay" chimney. 

The coal-mine was the heavy forest of maple and 
beech. No one needed to suffer for the want of artificial 
heat. The pioneer woodman was glad to furnish maple 
and beech logs, cord-length, for " three and nine " — the 
modest computation being sixty- two and one-half cents 
— a cord, brought to the door and symmetrically piled ! 

I have said that Eastport was the market. It must 
be told how the plantation people got to the market. 
At the time of Ebenezer's boyhood, there was no road 
whatever, in any direction. It was literally an un- 
broken wilderness. The way to Eastport, and the 
method of transportation, was as follows : First, a 
boat, being loaded with what was to be " exported," 
was rowed for half a mile across what was called Round 
Pond. It was then guided through a narrow channel 
into Pennamaquon Lake, on which the boat was rowed 
three miles. Then the passage was down a river, two 
miles, to Little Falls. Here the " cargo" was taken 
down over the Falls. Then the boat was dragged 
thither and reloaded. Down about two miles more to 
Great Falls, the unloading, moving, and reloading were 
repeated. A half-mile more came to tide- water. The 
passage was timed so as to reach Eastport on the ebb 



CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 13 

tide. Then, after depositing the u cargo" and loading 
with such " imports " as had been procured, a flood 
tide took them back to the river, the oars of course 
assisting ; and then back by the same progress of load- 
ing and reloading and rowing up the stream over lake 
and pond. That was the style of " going to market." 
In the winter, when the snow was deep and crusty, 
there was an easy and almost a direct passage across 
the land, and hence winter was the elect time for going 
to and returning from Eastport. 

Somewhat later an ox-path had been cleared for four 
or five miles to Pembroke, where advantage was taken 
of the ebb and flood tides to reach and return from 
Eastport. Mr. Samuel Fisher gives a curious and al- 
most touching incident, that may appear in this con- 
nection. Himself three years older than his cousin, 
Ebenezer, and a brother still }T>unger, " went to mar- 
ket." The} T took the ox-team to Pembroke, from there 
the} r took the boat and its burden to Eastport, and 
returned. Reaching Pembroke on the return, Samuel 
as the elder said to the two, " I wish to remain a short 
time at Pembroke. You take the team on to Charlotte ; 
and, as the oxen will move slowly, I shall overtake you 
before you get home." They did as he requested. In 
due time he started in pursuit. Upon reaching a place 
about a mile from home, he saw a person stretched upon 
the ground. Approaching him, he discovered that the 
person was no other than his cousin Ebenezer sound 
asleep ! He had become entirely exhausted ; and, rest- 



14 MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 

ing upon the ground to wait for his cousin, he fell 
asleep. Being awaked, a work of some difficulty, the 
elder, seeing that Ebenezer was weary and sad, said to 
him encouragingly, " It is only half a mile farther, Ebe- 
nezer, and when we get home we shall have a supper." 
• ; If I can only get home, I shall not want any supper," 
was the significant reply. The journey and the hard 
work had proved too much for a constitution that was 
never strong. 

I may add here that the hardships of going to market 
were the less in that there were few occasions for such 
a kind of enterprise. The temptations of high life did 
not exist, and the wants were few. The people of the 
Plantation lived mostly within themselves. They raised 
potatoes and wheat for 4 1 home consumption," and these 
with the live-stock met nearly every urgent need. The 
abundant maple was the sugar-cane, and no one thought 
of buying what he could produce, sugar and molasses ; 
and the demand for dry-goods was not very great in 
such a wilderness, for the people had wilderness 
habits. 

The literary facilities of the plantation were limited. 
The " Eastport Sentinel " was the " London Times " of 
the wilderness neighborhood. This was thoroughly 
and officially Whig in politics, and in public disputes it 
was the authority and umpire. Somewhat later the 
other side had' its organ in the "Northern Light," 
stoutly democratic, and also published at Eastport. A 
few copies of u Zion's Herald," a Boston Methodist 



CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 



15 



paper, were taken ; and these three papers furnished 
the literary nutriment of the community. 

I have alluded to Ebenezer' s love of study as an ex- 
ample of his intellectual and studious proclivities. Mr. 
Samuel Fisher gives me an incident. When his mother 
went to the plantation, moving from Sharon, Massachu- 
setts, she took with her that novelty of text-books, 
Morse's Geography. Such facilities for getting knowl- 
edge of the "round globe" and its divisions were 
almost an innovation upon the methods of study. It 
appears that Ebenezer had access to the geographical 
treasure, the fact coming to light in this way. Like 
all boys, what little of the boy that was in him loved 
to play with the water. He had his juvenile rafts and 
vessels. Samuel tells me one of his surprises was hear- 
ing Ebenezer say, while moving his toy craft around a 
point or along a narrow stream, that he was passing a 
particular cape or along a particular strait, giving the 
names he had learned in Morse's text-book ! As the 
elder, he had not been admitted into the mystery of 
the strange book, — the straits, the channels, and 
capes were new to him, and he hardly knew what 
Ebenezer meant in his allusions to them. 

As a man, the staid dignity of Mr. Fisher was easily 
broken into smiles, at times into rather noisy laughter. 
He had a quick sense of the ridiculous, and his humor 
never failed him. I give in this sketch of his boyhood 
an amusing example of his fun running to rhyme. The 
occasion was a quilting-bee, and the spectacle was the 



16 



MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



not uncommon one of country neighborhoods. The 
particulars the poem will indicate ; of course the name 
is fictitious. Samuel Fisher tells me that Ebenezer's 
verses were on every one's tongue, and that they made 
Charlotteville merry. And he illustrates his statement 
by reciting from memory as I write them down : — 

My friends, come now I '11 sing to you 

Of a most wondrous race 
That was begun and well was run 

No great way from this place. 

Of lasses two, I 'd have you know, 

Went to a quilting-bee, 
And as they came towards their home 

Our Jonah they did see. 

By Jonah's wink they just did think 

That he was after them ; 
And quickly they their heels did ply 

To run away from him. 

I have averred the noise was heard 

For three full miles and more, 
Like rabbits they did run away, 

Nor look behind nor 'fore. . 

I say to you the dust it flew 

Enough to blind your eyes, 
"While Jonah stands with upraised hands, 

Struck dumb by his surprise. 

They ran full well, as I do tell, 

As far as yonder tree ; 
They there sat down and looked around : 

No Jonah could they see. 



CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 



" Alackaday ! " they then did say, 

" What evil have we done ? 
'Tis my belief poor Jonah's grief 

Has surely hirn undone." 

I conclude this account of the childhood and youth 
by recording the fact that Ebenezer was, by the un- 
questioned verdict of young and old, the scholar of the 
Plantation. In certain specialties one or another ma}^ 
have excelled him. One kept ahead of him in the 
arithmetic, and another in the grammar ; but, in the 
combining of all the attainments in the general and 
well-balanced scholar, he had neither rival nor second. 



2 



18 



MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



CHAPTER II. 



LED TOWARDS THE MINISTRY. 



Unpromising Conditions. — The Antecedents of Faith. — Illustra- 
tive Incident. — How Blessings are Appreciated. — The Real 
Calvinism Dominant. — Sadness of Youthful Life. — A Furni- 
ture Maker. — Incipient Universalist. — Argues with Relatives. 
Urged to become a Baptist Minister. — A Pivotal Event. — 
Avows the Universalist Faith. — The Country Schoolmaster. — 
Contemplates Secular Business. — Thinks of the Ministry. — 
Hears his first Universalist Sermon. — Assists at a Sunday 
Service. 



XDER the unpromising conditions described in 



^ the preceding chapter was to appear the literal 
founder of an institution of learning. From the semi- 
wilderness was to appear the man who, in a sense dis- 
tinctive and peculiar, was to be a teacher in Israel, and 
whose success was to be so marked that the ministry of 
one branch of the Christian Church at this day feels the 
impress of his strong mind and character more than 
that of any other man. In fact, the Uniyersalist 
Church in America is in no small degree in the care of 
the ministers whose teacher in theology and the duties 
of the pastoral office fifty years ago was a poor boy, 
poorly clad and poorly taught, working with the hoe on 
a sterile soil, and fearing by day and night the stealthy 




LED TOWARDS THE MINISTRY. 



19 



approach of the untamed beasts of the forest. The ex- 
planation in part is in the greed for knowledge that 
cared for no holiday save as it gave him an opportunity 
to study the book which was always at hand in his 
pocket, and which hastened to the end of the furrow 
that it might in the few moments gained review the 
lesson. 

I pause to think of the Canton students who now 
make a large proportion of the working force in the 
Universalist ministry. I then think of that man's 
capacious brain, consecrated character, and plastic 
hand, training " the boys " in the Canton edifice. I go 
back — and it is but a few short years — and see that 
instructor and fashioner of ministers reclining upon his 
back in a potato field, so rapt in the tempting and 
inciting pages that the father, first pausing to wonder 
over the strange spectacle, is compelled to break the 
revery, and call back the wandering faculties to the 
stern realities of life on a wilderness farm. Fiction 
can present more grotesque situations, but none more 
romantic or farther removed from the ordinary experi- 
ence of human life. 

It is needless to say that the ' 6 portable " schoolhouse 
was but an incident in the early training of this remark- 
able youth. He was his own instructor. He made his 
very obstacles help him, forward him. He conquered 
untoward circumstances, and transmuted them into 
incitements and aids. But his ardent nature, literally 
hungering for an education, sought such assistance as 



20 MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 

very limited means rendered practicable. By some 
method, he managed to get about four months of the 
training given in the Wesley an Academy at Readfield, 
some ten miles distant from Augusta, the State capital. 
Doubtless he turned this very limited period to good 
account. In any view, when he left the academy his 
days of education under other teaching and guidance 
than his own were at an end. For all else, — and this 
is saying a great deal, — Ebenezer Fisher was literally 
a self-educated man. 

At this stage of our history, as the bo} T is approaching 
manhood, the important question will be asked, What 
was the beginning of his religious belief, by the char- 
acter of which his whole career was determined? And 
the fact is to be noted that one's character is not more 
determined by the specialty of his belief than by the 
antecedents of that belief. I was forcibly struck by 
the remark of a clergyman connected with one of the 
Brooklyn Universalis t churches, that the denomination 
of Universalists will never lose in strength and zeal so 
long as it makes converts from the Calvinistic churches. 
Just after the close of the war of the Rebellion, I had 
occasion to travel through one of the border States, 
and very near a stronghold of Confederate sympathizers. 
In the car were several Union men from Missouri. 
They talked with entire freedom, and gave the most 
emphatic expression to their federal predilections. Dur- 
ing the war I had lived in Massachusetts, and I natu- 
rally supposed that myself and neighbors were friends of 



LED TOWARDS THE MINISTRY. 



21 



the Union. In that journey, I made the discovery that 
up to that date I had hardly got a conception of the 
spirit and determination which were for the Union ' 6 in 
dead earnest. " These patriots who at the time were 
my fellow-travellers had suffered for their political 
faith. They had been victims of espionage, of social 
ostracism, of bitter prejudice. They had taken a posi- 
tion which was not alone unpopular, but which was also 
full of danger. In declaring themselves against the 
policy of the sececlers, and in allying themselves with 
the party of the Union, they had in fact taken their 
lives in their hands, and of nearly all men in their old 
neighborhood they were hated. They had put all that 
was dear to the hazard. In literal fact, their faith had 
" cost them something." I soon found that my ardent 
patriotism was lukewarm, hardly deserving the name of 
zeal for my country. I felt humbled in their presence. 
I felt for them a reverence such as the story of the 
Covenanters had evoked, as I read the noble history in 
my youth. I was made to understand that a man could 
not be a Union man in Massachusetts in any such sense 
as there were Union men in Kentucky, Tennessee, and 
Missouri. 

There is no danger that we shall state too thoroughly 
the dependence which an appreciation of good has upon 
a previous denial of it. That only the emancipated 
slave can have a just estimate of liberty ; that only they 
who have suffered on the bed of disease and pain can 
rightly value the preciousness of health and strength; 



22 MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



that only they who have felt the pinch of want and the 
pangs of hunger unallayed can know the meaning of 
the father's home where there is enough and to spare, — 
are axiomatic truths, and we cannot hold them too 
strongly. 

When Ebenezer Fisher was a boy, Calvinism was in 
the ascendant. The distinction which we are in these 
later days compelled to make between the Old and the 
New Orthodoxy had not been made nor foreseen. End- 
less punishment for all who did not repent of their sins 
and attain a new heart before the breath left their bod- 
ies meant, not endless consequences, but endless -pen- 
alty absolutely inflicted. The pains of hell were not 
metaphorical words. The}' were enunciated with strict 
literalness. The theory was that on and after the date 
of bodily death God hated the sinner, and Jesus the 
Friend, became Christ the vengeful Judge. And this 
frightful theology was not debatable. It was taught as 
a fact. Even to criticise the terms of the teaching was 
deemed wicked. To doubt the truth of hell torments 
was not simply a mistake of judgment, an error of be- 
lief : it was a damnable sin. And people did believe in 
this awful creed. They held it not as a habit of acqui- 
escence ; but in their souls they accepted it, felt it, 
suffered from it. When, therefore, a man or woman, 
by stud}' of the Scriptures and by the prayerful exercise 
of reason, was led at first to doubt the doctrine, next to 
cast it off, and then to apprehend and accept the gospel 
of glad tidings of great joy for all people, there was 



LED TOWARDS THE MINISTRY, 



23 



experienced a literal emancipation of mind and soul. 
The new truth, in the fulness of the joy it imparted, 
almost crowded out all minor thoughts. The new be- 
lief brought ecstasy of joy, and the convert felt that 
woe was his if he did not proclaim to others the faith 
which had brought the exceeding peace to himself. 
The Universalist, who had been a believer in the Cal- 
vinistic creed, felt that he had passed from darkness to 
light; and as he mused the fire burned, — his heart 
overflowed in grateful zeal. 

In this I have described the experience of man} 7 of 
the Universalists of half a century ago. In essence, it 
is the history of the Ballous, of Walter Balfour, of Se- 
bastian Streeter, of Thomas Whittemore. I name only 
those who have departed. I have described the ex- 
perience of Ebenezer Fisher. 

The elder Fisher was nominally a Universalist. 1 But 
he was not demonstrative in opposing or accepting 
religious beliefs. But the mother was a Baptist, and 
of course Calvinistic in every fibre of her thought. 
Other members of the family took the mother's creed, 
and in some instances were even more devoted to the 
Baptist thought and profession. The atmosphere of 
the home was therefore thoroughly and at times actively 
Calvinistic. The boy Ebenezer, thoroughly religious 
in his spirit, sedate and serious far beyond his years, 
instinctively a believer, sincere in every thought and 

1 One statement assures me that lie was a Unitarian. In either 
character he was not demonstrative. 



24 MEMOfR OF EBEXEZER FISHER. 

word, took the gloomy theology to his mind and his 
heart. Though not accustomed to talk much on the 
subject, he thought and felt. The belief cast a shadow 
over his early life. As he not only believed in the ter- 
rible doom of sinners, but also realized it. it made his 
early days bitter. As no one appeared to dispute its 
truth, it hardly occurred to him that its truth could be 
called in question. He brooded over the awful plight 
of man. He saw no escape from the grasp of inexora- 
ble wrath. It was his awful vision by night, the shadow 
that accompanied him at noonday. He could not call 
his mind off the horrible spectre. Like the great Sau- 
rin. whose logical and consistent words are so often 
quoted", he found life a cruel bitter." 

The Eev. J. X. Emery, of Beverly, Mass., — for- 
merly a student at Canton under Dr. Fisher, — commu- 
nicates to me an incident, which has a fitting place in 
this connection. " Once," Mr. Emery writes, "in a 
discussion of the authority of the Bible in the class, he 
made the statement that he would believe any doctrine 
which he felt sure the Xew Testament taught. A stu- 
dent asked him if he would still hold to the authority 
of the Bible, if he should be convinced that it taught 
the doctrine of endless misery. His reply was, 
• Yes. I did accept it as authority when I believed 
it taught the doctrine of endless miseiy. I have no 
reason to think it would be different now/ I have 
heard him remark in Conference meetings, that he 
used to go out into the fields alone, and give vent to 



LED TOWARDS THE MINISTRY. 



25 



his indignation that God had decreed the damnation 
of souls." 

Such was the first belief, the first theology of the 
first Theological school, for educating young men for 
the Universalist ministry in America ! 

At the age of sixteen, 1 young Fisher met with one of 
those opportunities, little thought of at the time, but 
which the future proves to have been the pivotal event 
of life. The Fisher family was, as I have related, 
from Massachusetts. They were scattered over Nor- 
folk County ; particularly in Canton, Sharon, and Ded- 
ham. It was not unnatural for the son to be drawn to 
the home of his kindred. Accordingly, at the age of 
opening manhood, Ebenezer went to Sharon, where, for 
a short time, he worked in a furniture establishment, 
with Horace C. Clapp, his brother-in-law. This was 
just before his four months of attending school at 
Readville. His sister, Mrs. Clapp, a very sincere and 
Christian woman, retained the doctrinal opinions of the 
mother, though her zeal as a Baptist was even more 
intense. In Sharon, he was also much in the society of 
his aunts, all of them members of the strictest of Cal- 
vmistic sects, the Baptist. Young Fisher had, at that 
time, but recently lost faith in the creed of his youth, 
and was in the incipient stage of Universalism. He, 
however, venerated his older relatives, whose deep in- 
terest in his 4 4 eternal welfare " was natural. I am told 
that they argued with him, and sought to instil in him 
1 Mr. Samuel Fisher is confident that the date is later, 



26 MEMOIR OF EBEKEZER FISHER. 

the doctrines of their creed. This does not imply that 
he was as yet of a contrary belief ; for he was by nature 
argumentative, and even in talk with those whose opin- 
ions he shared he would often put them on the defence. 
I recall an instance in which I was a party. The sec- 
ond time I met with him, I gave expression to an opin- 
ion on a minor point of doctrine which I had recently 
reached. He began at once to name objections. I 
attempted to remove them, and he would at once dis- 
cuss some point in my reply. The dialogue ran on per- 
haps half an hour, when, with the confidence of my 
opinion, I said to him: "I believe you will have to 
come to my side of the subject yet I " To my sur- 
prise he answered : " Oh, I think just as you do, now ; 
only, as that side is sometimes based upon propositions 
which are not pertinent, I wanted to see if you could 
give the right argument ! " In later days, when I 
knew him better, I uniformly found him as much in ear- 
nest in opposing false proofs of what he nevertheless 
deemed truth, as in defending the truth itself. He ap- 
peared to think that the defending of sound doctrine by 
such u arguments" as were not adequate worked to the 
prejudice of that truth. He was therefore quite as 
combative of false methods as of false conclusions. 
And he constantly had a combative proclivity. The 
circumstance, therefore, that he had controversies with 
his aunts does not of itself imply that he differed 
from them in doctrine. But, in fact, he had come to 
doubt the creed, which to his sincere and serious na- 



LED TOWARDS THE MINISTRY. 27 

ture had lost its power over him ; vet his relatives seri- 
ously urged him to become a Baptist minister, and 
offered to bear the full expense of the regular course, at 
the Baptist Theological Seminary at Newton, Massa- 
chusetts, a burden which they were abundantly able to 
bear. This offer he, of course, felt moved to decline. 

The young man had simply reached a stage when his 
future might be determined by influences in themselves 
slight. In this state of negation, with perhaps some 
glimmerings of Universalist thought, but not enough to 
lead into any very positive belief, the determining op- 
portunity of his life came, and he firmly announced, what 
in the succeeding } T ears of his life he unhesitatingly 
defended, his faith in the grace of God which is to se- 
cure the final salvation from sin of every soul. 

The name of Samuel Chandler, of Canton, must here 
receive conspicuous mention. He it was that put young 
Fisher in the way of becoming a pronounced Univer- 
salist. Mr. Chandler and his sister happened to make 
the acquaintance of the young man, who was at work 
in the furniture establishment of the adjoining town. 
They had discovered his new tendency in the direction 
of the Universalist doctrine. They had a Universalist 
"library," including some twenty numbers of Mr. 
Whittemore's " Trumpet," and Ballou's 66 Notes on the 
Parables." These they loaned the young furniture 
maker. And oh, what food these proved to that hun- 
gry and waiting soul ! What a soul-rejoicing hope they 
enkindled I And with greed did the newly evoked 



"28 



MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



spiritual hunger ask for yet further supply. The Chan- 
dlers then put in his hands those books, which it has 
always seemed to nie no person can read and ever after 
believe that the doctrine of endless hell torments is 
realty taught in the Scriptures usually cited in their 
support, — Balfour's "First and Second Inquiries." 
They were read and studied, and full conviction was 
given to the mind and heart of the young reader. Ebe- 
nezer Fisher returned to his half- wilderness home, a 
confirmed, and, as he ever after proved, a consistent 
Christian Universalist. 

Returning to his home, he at once put his attain- 
ments, necessarily limited, to the practical use which 
in remote villages is so common, that of teaching. He 
got employment in the vicinity of his home, and, for 
certain months of the year, Ebenezer Fisher was the 
country school-master. Of his success in that charac- 
ter, I should be safe in giving an opinion even as a con- 
jecture. His extraordinary faculty for criticism — so 
conspicuously exhibited later in life — must have been 
effective in the crude years of his practice in the school- 
room. But the circumstance that he was regularly in 
that office for several years shows the estimate formed 
of him by his own community. In this particular, the 
prophet was not without honor even in his own country. 
He was a school-teacher from the age of nineteen to 
that of twenty-three. 

As manhood came the natural question was the ever- 
anxious one, u What shall I do?" At first he thought 



LED TOWARDS THE MINISTRY. 



29 



of secular business. There is something almost gro- 
tesque in the reflection that the dignified and reverend 
head of the Theological School escaped the enterprise 
which he seriously contemplated, — that of going into 
the oatmeal business ! But Providence had another 
work more congenial to his tastes, and more fitting his 
extraordinary gifts. 

Just when the thought of entering the Christian min- 
istry entered his mind, I do not learn : very likely he 
could not himself have determined the exact date. 
It was with him, we may presume, as it has proved with 
so man}^, at first a faint glimmer, gradually approaching 
a full determination. When first seriously entertained, 
a sense of the great responsibility, and a fear of perso- 
nal unfitness for so serious a duty, usually repel and 
dishearten. I doubt not that nearly every worthy 
Christian minister has felt impelled to the solemn voca- 
tion by an inward conviction, yet meeting with frequent 
and painful rebuffs from the feeling of humility with 
which the best of men must contrast their unworthiness 
with the high ideal of the sacred office. Any man who 
enters without misgiving and with a self-satisfied alac- 
rity the ranks of Christ's ambassadors, servants in his 
Church, gives the most conclusive of all proofs that he 
has no divine call. 

Ebenezer Fisher had no unmanly distrust of himself. 
Like other men of strong convictions, and of great 
powers of mind and judgment, he knew his strength. 
In contrasting himself with others less favored of na- 



80 



MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



tore, he could but feel and recognize his superiority. 
Xo man becomes a leader among his brethren who does 
not recognize his ability to lead. Mr. Fisher was a 
strong man, and he knew his strength. He was a 
leader among men, and he knew that he was able to 
lead. He was never kept back or down by a crushing 
distrust of himself. I clearly, and in unequivocal terms, 
state this marked characteristic of the man. I deem 
the fact a tribute, and I respect him therefor. Yet was 
he a man of due and chastened humility. The first 
thought of entering the sacred office, 1 have no doubt, 
led him to shrink in distrust and fear. But, by the time 
he was twenty-one, his mind was made up, and then his 
thoughts concentrated on the means by which he might 
fit himself for the great responsibility. He was di- 
vinely called, and he obeyed. At this juncture, fortune 
favored him, as I shall presently explain. 

As the influences which led into the Universalist min- 
istry this man, who was destined to achieve for the 
Universalist Church so great and desirable a work, 
have a deep interest, I am fortunate in being able to 
give a pertinent incident, which came to light almost by 
accident. At the Memorial Service of Dr. Fisher, held 
in Boston a few days after his decease, the Rev. Eich- 
arcl Eddy gave a biographical sketch. The announce- 
ment that he was to render this service fortunately took 
the eye of one who had personal knowledge of what was 
probably Mr. Fisher's first appearance in public, spe- 
cially as a Universalist. 



LED TOWARDS THE MINISTRY. 



31 



The late Rev. E. W. Coffin was spending a few 
Sundays in Calais, Maine, in the fall of 1839. It came 
to the knowledge of young Fisher that a Universalist 
minister was preaching in that place. The distance 
from his home to Calais was fifteen miles, yet the al- 
most providential opportunity was not to be neglected. 
He went and heard a sermon from Mr. Coffin. He 
felt constrained, so deeply had his inquiring mind and 
anxious heart been affected, to remain over another 
Sunday, spending the intervening time with Mr. Coffin, 
who, writing to Mr. Eddy the interesting particulars, 
says : — 

" One evening Mr. Fisher said to me, ' 1 have no doubt 
of the truth of Universalism, but there are some passages of 
Scripture that I am unable to explain, and would like your 
views upon them ; and for the sake of information I will take 
the Orthodox stand, and you the Universalist. ' So we had 
a theological discussion ; and all who are acquainted with 
Brother Fisher's argumentative power and ability as a debater, 
need not be told that I had a hard time of it ! 

" During these interviews, Mr. Fisher made known his desire 
and intention to enter the ministry, but declined my urgent 
solicitations that he should preach a part of the day the next 
§abbath, stating that he was not prepared, and that it was his 
conviction that no one should preach until he had been author- 
ized or licensed to do so. He consented, however, to take part 
in the evening services, and to make some remarks after the 
sermon, at the same time stating that he had 6 never yet spoken 
in a religious meeting.' " 

Describing, the result, Mr. Coffin says : — 

e< When the time came, he read the first hymn and offered 
the prayer. I then preached a short discourse, after which 



32 



MEMOIR OF EBEXEZER FISHER. 



he took up the general idea of the sermon, and spoke about 
fifteen minutes ; and, although I knew that it must have 
been purely extemporaneous, I could not help thinking of the 
figure in Proverbs, 1 Apples of gold in pictures of silver,' for 
surely the words were ' fitly spoken/ As we walked to our 
stopping-place, he said to me, 1 Brother Coffin, 1 find that I 
shall have to learn one thing in order to preach, and that is to 
be a little more prolix, or to spin out my ideas a little farther.' 
My reply to him was, ' Brother Fisher, as long as you are able 
to send out the pure gold such as you have given us to-night, 
you had better not- trouble yourself about the alloy.' And I 
think that all who have heard Brother Fisher preach, or have 
read his writings, will agree with me that he used very few 
superfluous words." 

There is in this brief epistle c ' an example in point " 
confirming and illustrating the comment I have ven- 
tured, that in all his mental and argumentatiye progress 
Mr. Fisher combated his way. 



ENTERS THE MINISTRY. 



33 



CHAPTER III. 



ENTERS THE MINISTRY. 



Elected to the Legislature. — Special Talent recognized. — Makes 
the Acquaintance of Revs. W. A. Drew and D. Forbes. — Their 
Influence. — At a Banquet. — The Subject of Ridicule. — A 
Brave Speech. — Compels Deference. — Salary goes for Books. — 
Enters the Universalist Ministry. — Preaches for his " Board." — 
First Settlement. — Marriage. — Family Record. — Reception in 
Charlotte as a Universalist Minister. — Not a "Rolling Stone." 
— A Reflection. — The Down-East Speculation. — General George 
H. Devereaux. — Makes Mr. Fisher's Acquaintance. — Recom- 
mends him to the Salem Parish. — Heard as a Candidate. — 
General Impression. — The Principal Objection. — "Too Old," 
yet Thirty-two. — Influences that determined the Parish. — 
Unanimously called. 



k HE year following, 1840, Mr. Fisher was nominated 



for the office of Representative in the State 
Legislature. In politics he was a Whig ; but the Demo- 
crats were somewhat in the ascendant. This was at a 
time when party feeling was strong, and the temptation 
to vote the "straight" ticket was usually resistless. 
Each party put forward its strongest man. It was 
certain that Mr. Fisher could not be elected by the 
Whigs, though every member of the party was sure to 
vote for him. The small proportion on whom party 
claims rest lightly it was discovered would support the 




3 



36 MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



firmly declined. Then one after another rallied him on 
his scruples. Doubtless under the inspiration of the cup, 
badgering, cajoling, ridiculing, were freely and noisily 
directed against him. But the young man was firm. 

Yet the jeering was so constant, and had so turned 
all ej'es upon him, that his feelings were deeply wounded. 
Finally he was moved to speak : " Gentlemen, before I 
left my home I promised to abstain from intoxicating 
drinks, and further urging on your part I shall consider 
an insult ! " Brave and defiant words were those of 
Ebenezer Fisher, spoken in the face of ridicule, to some 
of the most prominent men of the Commonwealth. In 
their utterance, he rose above them all, overcame their 
ridicule, and compelled their respect. 

In connection with his election to the Legislature, I 
have said that Mr. Fisher was favored of fortune. But 
this was not merely in that valuable experience which 
it gave him, nor in the important influence the company 
of leading Universalist clergymen exerted over him. 
Having determined to enter the ministry, he felt it his 
duty to make every possible preparation for its duties. 
He needed a class of books such as had not found their 
way into his country home, and what were then within 
reach he had no means of possessing. He imperatively 
needed that which in this age supplies many wants, — 
money. His office at the capital put money in his 
purse : it was not wasted. It in no regard ministered 
to any frivolous or transient want. Every dollar that 
his most rigid economy could save was given for the 



ENTERS THE MINISTRY. 



37 



books and incidental helps so indispensable to one who 
would enter upon a great task with a well-furnished 
mind. A new world of thoughts, of wisdom, of sugges- 
tion, opened to him. He took to his new and quicken- 
ing studies as a miser takes to his gold, — except that 
the student never gloats over, but absorbs and assimi- 
lates, his gains. And the inventive, critical, robust 
intellect was indeed an absorbent, and much more. 

Mr. Fisher never took opinions on trust. He looked 
at every proposition in the light of his own understand- 
ing. Not even the great names of the Ballous, both of 
whom he had come to revere, weighed with him as 
authorities. In certain points, he differed from them 
both. And he took nothing from either till he had 
carefully and dispassionately verified it. He absorbed 
only in the sense that he assimilated. He did not simply 
fill his mind : he " drew it out," — he educated it. The 
relentless criticism he afterwards poured out in the 
Essex Ministerial Circle (whereof there is a chapter fur- 
ther on), and which he never kept back for fear of 
hurting sensitive natures, he first of all applied to Ebe- 
nezer Fisher in the wilds of Washington County, Maine. 

The legislative history came between his early labors 
in the ministry. Before his election to that important 
trust, he spent a winter at Milltown, which is a part of 
Calais, pursuing such theological studies as his then 
exceedingly scanty library permitted, and in preaching 
— it will cause a smile when the reader is told— -for 
his board! 



38 



MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



The Rev. I. C. Knowlton, in his little book, " Annals 
of Calais and St. Stephen," makes a note of this early 
stage in Mr. Fisher's ministerial career. He says : — 

"In 1839, Rev. Ebenezer Fisher, D.D., a native of Char- 
lotte, Maine, and now President of Canton Theological School, 
in New York, became pastor of the Milltown Universalist 
Society. He remained only six months ; hut his fervent piety, 
Christian deportment, and lucid expositions of the Gospel, im- 
parted tone and strength to the young society." (p. 150.) 

After his sojourn at the capital, with his replenished 
treasury, his new supply of books, and his new start on 
a much higher grade of intellectual outfit, he was for- 
mally settled with a regular salary. For the six suc- 
cessive years, beginning July, 1841, he was pastor of 
the Universalist church at Addison Point, not far from 
his old home. His regular salary was four hundred 
dollars a year. His actual salary differed considerably 
from the "regular." The first year he received little 
short of one hundred and fifty dollars. After the man- 
ner of ministers whose settlements are on the borders, 
Mr. Fisher made the ' 4 field " his parish. There were 
little parishes in the neighboring communities of Colum- 
bia, Epping, Indian River, and Cherryfield. For all of 
these, he was the preacher ; and in their service he was 
always ready to go forth, either to preach the Word, or 
to give counsel and consolation. But his home and his 
formal settlement was Addison Point. 

Two months after assuming the care of many little 
churches, he assumed another responsibility, in which 



ENTERS THE MINISTRY. 



39 



— some will say, as an exception to the rule — bis first, 
only, and continual choice was fully met and satisfied. 
Of his many trials and disappointments, the one which 
so often afflicts tender youth he was happily spared. 
He never knew the pain of love unrequited, and of 
the corresponding hope deferred. On Sept. 27, 1841, 
he was married to Miss Amy W. Leighton, of Pem- 
broke, Maine. In her he found a wife capable of fully 
appreciating his unusual abilities, and who has literally 
venerated his exalted Christian character. As a pas- 
tor's wife, and as his nearest and dearest associate in 
all his subsequent career, she has proved herself a help- 
meet indeed. Of this I shall have occasion to give 
abundant examples, in describing the Canton history. 
Here seems the fitting place for making his family rec- 
ord. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Fisher were as 
follows : Ebenezer Everett (now Dr. Fisher of Eichville, 
N. Y., a practising physician), born in Addison Point, 
Sept. 5, 1844 ; Amie L. (now Mrs. Bigelow, of Great 
Falls, N. H.), born in Salem, Mass., April 29, 1850; 
and Ellen Estelle, born in South Dedham (now Nor- 
wood), Mass., Feb. 24, 1855, and died Feb. 4, 1861, at 
Canton, N. Y. I can bear testimony that in all regards 
Mr. Fisher's was a Christian home, not alone in its altar 
of worship, in the duties of which he was conscientiously 
faithful and regular, but in the prevailing temper and 
conversation. 

It is natural that the reader snould ask how the fam- 
ily was affected by the startling appearance of one of 



40 MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



its members as a Uhiversalist minister, at a time when, 
and in a neighborhood where, the faith of Universalism 
was bitterly spoken against. At first it gave the mother 
some anxiety. But the maternal instinct was too strong 
for prejudice. Going to his native home, he was so- 
licited to preach. He did so, and nearly the whole 
population came out, drawn by curiosity in part, and in 
part from the profound respect all were compelled to 
cherish for a young man of such uprightness of charac- 
ter and evident sincerity of belief. One of the sisters 
felt that her Baptist principles were in danger of com- 
promise, and so she repressed the natural anxiety to 
hear her brother preach. But the mother knew that 
her son was a Christian, and she was sure that he could 
not preach any thing that would be productive of other 
than good. The next step was natural, in her case 
inevitable. She became a Universalist herself. 

The six years of unremitting toil on a very scanty 
support, of the several little parishes of which the one 
at Addison Point was the principal, are sufficient proof 
that Mr. Fisher was not a restless spirit, eager for 
change, and ever watching for better and more lucrative 
positions. Circumstances, in the shaping of which he 
had no part, were preparing for him an important post 
of duty. He did not actively seek it : he was sought. 

The cackling of geese saved Rome. Daniel Webster 
was reported as having said that the circumstance that 
a particular soldier in the army of General Wolfe could 
speak French led to the war of the Revolution. The 



ENTERS THE MINISTRY. 



41 



chain of consequences is often composed of most incon- 
gruous links. At certain epochs, there seem to be 
epidemics of speculation. The South Sea Bubble in 
one form or another is repeated in history. Somewhere 
about the year 1837, the mania that infected all New 
England was the Down-East Land Speculation. Ar- 
dent imaginations saw untold gold in the woods of 
Maine. At that period, my own home being in a town 
bordering on the Penobscot, I saw crowds come and go 
on the pioneer steamboat of eastern waters, the u Ban- 
gor." Too young to know what speculating meant, I 
distinctly remember that the business of that boat was 
to bring men to that part of Maine, to speculate in its 
lands and forests. 

But what has this to do with the founding or building 
of a Theological School? We shall see. Among the 
many families that got involved in the speculation craze, 
were the Devereauxs of Salem, Mass., and Cherryfield 
was a centre of their interest. General George H. 
Devereaux, of that city, a man of marked ability, an 
active politician and an orator, went to Cherryfield to 
look after the property, and in the search lost his own. 
He happened to be there at the time of Mr. Fisher's 
settlement at Addison Point, who at that time, as I 
have before stated, had a regular preaching station 
at Cherryfield. General Devereaux was a Unitarian. 
He had no particular sympathy with formal Universal- 
ism, or with the denomination. No sectarian bias im- 
pelled him to seek the acquaintance of the Universalist 



42 



MEMOIR OF EBEXEZER FISHER 



preacher, who at regular periods came from Addison 
Point to preach in Cherryfield. But he was a judge of 
character. At the first sight of the Universalist preacher. 
General Devereaux was struck, not so much with what 
he already was. as with the promise that was literally 
stamped upon his features. He felt that the unfolding 
genius of greatness was iu the soul of the man. He 
sought his acquaintance, and was uniformly present 
when he came to the neighborhood on professional duty. 
He talked about him. and said that there was a power 
in that man that time would bring to light. He saw in 
him capability, character, and a presence, which clearly 
indicated that he was a born leader of his fellows. 
He said that the sign-manual of greatness was upon 
him. Though many years his senior. General Deve- 
reaux confessed that there was in the young man some- 
thing that touched him with awe. 

In the month of April. 1846. the Kev. Linns S. 
Everett closed a pastorate of five years in Salem. 
The parish remained near thirteen months without a 
settled minister, depending upon supplies and hearing 
candidates. Learning that the Salem committee was 
anxious to secure a pastor as soon as the " right man " 
could be found. General Devereaux — who had returned 
to his Salem home — said to some of the members that 
a strong and rising" man was preaching at a remote 
place. Addison Point. Maine. He gave his earnest 
opinion that Mr. Fisher was fully equal to any reason- 
able expectation. He said that the L^nitarian was the 



ENTERS THE MINISTRY. 



43 



church of his choice, and was likely to remain so ; but 
he felt almost certain that the Universalist parish and 
the city would be the gainers, if the pastor at Addison 
Point was called. 

The advice was heeded. Mr. Fisher was heard as a 
candidate. He created no " sensation." There was 
nothing at all sensational, or specially brilliant in his 
pulpit efforts. He impressed every one as a man of 
unusual mental strength. He was seen to be sur- 
charged with character. Every one felt for him an 
instinctive respect, and paid him deference. It is sim- 
ple fact to say that he evoked no passionate enthusiasm. 
The proper word is not enthusiasm, but confidence. He 
did not thrill ; but he impressed. The adjectives his 
efforts evoked were not 44 smart," nor 66 magnificent," 
nor 44 superb." He rather suggested the idea of weight, 
of wisdom, of leadership. It was not 44 Camilla skip- 
ping along the main," but Ajax rolling the massive 
stone. There appeared to be more in the man than in 
his words. 

There was one objection raised which, under the cir- 
cumstances, was certainly amusing, and this for the 
reason that it was seriously meant. He was 44 too 
old ! " A younger man could better attend to the many 
duties of so large a parish ! Too old ? He was thirty- 
two ! He was younger than some who raised the ob- 
jection. Those who knew Mr. Fisher at that time will 
understand how such an objection could be seriously 
entertained. I have cited in part Mr. Samuel Fisher's 



44 MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 

words, " Ebenezer never was a boy : he never had any 
youth. When he was ten, he was a man ; when he was 
twenty, he was venerable." The profound seriousness 
of his nature was evinced in his childhood. He was 
constitutionally venerable. His stalwart frame, his 
large round head, the whiteness of his complexion, his 
premature baldness, his heavy voice, all gave the mien, 
the accent, and the impression of wisdom, from which 
years can hardly be dissociated. 

The last time I saw him in 1877, at the Universalist 
Publishing House on Cornhill, he did not seem to me 
a year older than he seemed just thirty years ago, when 
I first met him at the house of Dr. A. A. Miner in Bos- 
ton. That impression of some of the Salem people 
that he was " too old" was an honest one. When it 
was explained, " He is but thirty -two," they looked at the 
man again, and knew there must be a mistake. It was 
no uncommon thing for his seniors in years to imagine 
themselves his juniors, and allude to him as venerable. 
But with all his gravity of demeanor, he had the heat 
of youth, and a fund of humor. He never failed in 
meeting wit with wit, a joke with a retort, and few 
relished a story more keenly, and, though not over-flow- 
ing in the story-telling propensity, he rarely failed to 
have one for the contingency, which he always told with 
the sto^-telling accent. No one understood the gravity 
and venerableness of his bearing better than himself ; 
and, so far from being annoyed at the frequent mistakes 
in regard to his age, it was always to him a source of 



ENTERS THE MINISTRY. 



45 



amusement. In an address on the " Character and 
Influence" of Dr. Fisher given at the Memorial Ser- 
vice at Boston, by the Rev. 0. T. Safford, — for- 
merly a student at Canton, — discriminating allusion 
is made to the characteristic which I have sought to 
describe ; and one of Dr. Fisher's sayings, which I 
have several times heard directly from him, was cited. 
After alluding to the dignity of his presence, Mr. 
Safford says : — 

" Dr. Fisher early drew to himself the reverential regard 
which we are accustomed to bestow on honorable age. I have 
heard him say, with his quiet smile, i When I arrived at the 
ripe age of thirty- one years, I began to be called Father Fisher.' 
Perhaps a protracted sickness in his early manhood, with its 
bodily pain and spiritual discipline, helped to give him this 
peculiar appearance. He always bore it with a becoming grace. 
Yet it is but fair to say, those of us who were intimately asso- 
ciated with him in our early manhood were not accustomed to 
call him ' Father Fisher,' even after years might naturally have 
brought to him the honorary title. He always seemed to us to 
have in his heart the perennial spirit of youth. He entered 
with sympathy into our early hopes ; he had even sympathetic 
kindness for the extravagances of our youthful dreams and 
tastes. He was invisibly clothed with the mantle of Faust. 
Still, as indicative so far only of his bodily appearance, we 
note that the external Dr. Fisher was such a majestic man that 
reverent hearts, which did not know the pulse of his inner 
life, instinctively gave him the honor and authority due to 
age. Had he been a priest of the Koman church, he would 
have been called a father not so much by canonical requirement 
as by virtue of his being, in presence and bearing, a natural 
adviser and leader." 



46 MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



Returning to the preaching on trial at Salem, the 
'•objection" which I have described, and for which I 
have accounted, did not prove serious. The Salem 
parish had not been every way fortunate in some of its 
recent pastors. The strange career of Rev. Matthew 
Hale Smith — as I write these words but just deceased 

— had been an injury to the church in alienating some 
of its members, and in the injury to its prestige in the 
community. The Rev. L. S. Everett, very capable, 
and in some respects very popular, had exhibited a few 
eccentricities, — I infer that they merit no harsher name, 

— whereby his personal influence was impaired and the 
reputation of the parish had incidentally suffered. The 
older and more experienced members of the parish, 
having an eye to the great necessity of recovering the 
good name which the Rev. Lemuel Willis, a former 
pastor, had given to it, and of conquering the few 
prejudices that recent history had created, saw in the 
strong mind and exalted character of the candidate a 
providential man. Mr. Fisher received an unanimous 
call. On the fourth day of May, 1847, he was duly in- 
stalled pastor of the Salem Universalist Church. 



THE SALEM PASTORATE. 



47 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE SALEM PASTOKATE, 



Leaders in the Universalist Church. — A pivotal Period. — Status 
of the Denomination. — " An ti- Orthodox" Prejudices. — Lack ol 
Institution. — Inefficient Organization. — Need of Change im- 
perative. — Mr. Fisher's instant Apprehension of the Need. — 
A Home Mission. — 1850. — Local Prejudices. — The Anti- 
slavery Agitation. — A "Bone of Contention." — Effect upon 
Churches. — Change in the Defence of Slavery. — Attempts to 
make it national. — Tho Free-soil Party. — The Dilemma 01 
Pastors. — Eadical and Conservative. — Mr. Fisher Conserva- 
tive. — Meets a new Issue. — The " Maine Law." — Mr. Fisher's 
active Interest in the Temperance Cause. — His ideal Pastor. — 
Success in Salem. — Character of his Sermons. — Influential 
rather than popular Example of Confidence. — Love for the 
Church. — Parochial Fidelity. — Illness. — Kesigns the Salem 
Pastorate. — Letters on his Father's Death. 



k HE call of Dr. Fisher to the pastorate of the Salem 



A Universalist Church marks an important epoch 
in his career. It brought him into close and sympa- 
thetic relations with several leading minds of the de- 
nomination. Hosea Ballou was indeed in the decline 
of his physical powers, yet he was an active spirit in 
the church, preaching frequently on Sunday ; and there 
was seldom a meeting of his State Convention, or his 
Association, that he did not attend, usually to take an 




48 MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



active part in the deliberations. Hosea Ballou, 2d, 
was in the ripeness of his mental powers, and merited 
the reputation he bore, — that of being the ablest 
thinker, the almost authoritative writer, and the wise 
man, among his brethren. Sebastian Streeter was the 
minister at the old Hanover Street Church, Boston ; 
and the radical change of the population, so destructive 
to nearly every Protestant congregation at the North 
End, had but just set in, and had produced but little of 
the disastrous effects upon Mr. Streeter's parish which 
at a not much later clay were fatal. Otis A. Skinner 
was the pastor of the Warren Street Church, and in 
the denomination his prestige was deservedly great. 
Thomas TThittemore was conducting the " Trumpet," 
and his magical influence had suffered no eclipse. I 
might add the names of others who had risen to a com- 
manding position, and whose special sphere of labor 
was the neighborhood which includes Salem. But I 
restrict the enumeration to those who have gone higher. 

Again, the date of Mr. Fisher's settlement in Salem 
marks with much precision a pivotal period in the de- 
velopment of the Universalist denomination. Up to 
about that period, the Universalist method had been 
mainly — by no means exclusively — polemical. Its 
past was an age of controversy. Its instrument was 
exegesis, and this restricted to those portions of Scrip- 
ture which for centuries had been construed into teach- 
ing the doctrine of endless punishment, and to those 
other passages which were by Universalists deemed 



THE SALEM PASTORATE. 49 

positive in the inculcation of the doctrine of the final 
holiness and happiness of all mankind. So largely 
had this special style of labor absorbed — and under 
the hostile, almost venomous state of so-called Orthodox 
public sentiment necessarily absorbed — the thought 
and the zeal of Universalist parishes, ministers, and 
editors, that even the Sunday-school enterprise was 
greatly in abeyance ; while the great interests of church 
extension by specific and regular methods, and of 
schools under church auspices, had hardly arrested the 
thought of the mass of Universalist believers. There 
was no college where the sons of Universalist parents 
could receive a classic culture, and be secure against 
hostile sectarian influences. There was no theological 
school in which young men could receive systematic 
training for the Universalist ministry. There were 
three or four feeble academies, working wonders in- 
deed when their limited facilities are considered, in 
the educational wa} T . This was all. Church organiza- 
tion cannot be said to have been at a low ebb, for it 
had never been at an}' thing of a flood. The Gen- 
eral Convention was nothing but a mass meeting : it 
had not the pretence of prerogative. The State Con- 
ventions were no better. The name was grand : 
the thing was a shadow. The only thing that 
with any propriety can be called a power was 
that which regulated discipline and determined fel- 
lowship, and this was largely in the hands of small 
Associations, in some instances not including a half 

4 



50 



MEMOIR OF EBEXEZER FISHER. 



dozen " societies," as the parishes were then generally 
called. 

The Universalist movement had been spontaneous. 
It did not advance on any particular plan. It had 
indeed a ruling idea, but it had no ruling purpose. 
It was impulsive, but not methodical. The contribu- 
tion box was unpopular, — a relic of Orthodoxy sug- 
gestive of Foreign Missions. A parish that was self- 
supporting was in a state of ideal prosperity. That it 
should be called upon as occasional contributor in 
response to the i; Macedonian cry," was deemed pre- 
suming ; that it should be asked to make regular contri- 
butions for church extension, — such an idea had not, 
save in a very few cases, been invented. 

Strong, wise, foreseeing, faithful men saw that almost 
a total revolution in these regards must be effected, or 
else that the days of the Universalist Church as a dis- 
tinct movement were numbered. There must be col- 
leges, divinity schools, missions, organization ;i for 
work," and a literature, — a weekly press, representative 
of these enterprises, — or the tent of the Universalist 
Israel must soon be struck. In nearly every State 
where Universalism had any noticeable strength, there 
were a few such leading spirits. They were most 
abundant in Xew York and New England. Candor 
will not deem it a local prejudice if I add that the 
principal strength of this new conviction was the neigh- 
borhood which, having Boston for its centre, was of 
about the diameter that took in Salem. 



THE SALEM PASTORATE. 



51 



The leading men whose names I have given were 
older than Mr. Fisher. He, though always of venera- 
ble aspect, really belonged to the younger and succeed- 
ing generation. Just what were his thoughts touching 
the future of the denomination with which he was con- 
nected at the time of his call to Salem, I have not 
learned ; but it is certain that he at once responded to 
the convictions which at the time were influencing the 
action of the leaders in the Universalist movement. 
He no sooner apprehended the new purpose than he 
found himself in profound sympathy with it ; and from 
1847 to the day of his death Universalism found in no 
other a more devoted, faithful, consecrated believer in 
the imperativeness of institutions of learning, mission- 
ary endeavor, and efficient organization. 

To many of my readers, this statement may not seem 
to assert an}^ thing more than a matter of course. Why 
should not a sincere man commit himself to measures 
needful to the advocacy of his belief? The younger 
generation of Universalists can hardly be made to 
understand the prejudice which those of a former 
generation had conceived against church missions and 
authoritative organization. The Calvinism of that 
earlier day was directly associated with ecclesiastical 
power and with missions ; and to the earlier Universal- 
ists Calvinism with all its adjuncts was very repulsive. 
At first the Sunday school had been resisted on the 
ground that it was 4 4 imitating the Orthodox." The con- 
tribution-box provoked the same objection. The mis- 



52 



MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



sionary idea yet more strongly called forth the comment 
which with not a few was thought conclusiye of all con- 
troversy ; and efficient organization suggested visions 
of inquisitorial fires and thumb -screw r s. As I write, it 
is not thirty-five years since the Universalists as a 
people were for the reasons explained hostile to all the 
auxiliaries of the parish or church, with the single ex- 
ception of the Sunday school. It is within the past 
thirty years that an}' thing has been done to correct 
that unfortunate inheritance of prejudice. 

The position which, as I have said, Mr. Fisher at 
once took, was therefore the conclusiye proof of a mind 
and heart that could judge of things according to their 
intrinsic merits, and not be diverted b}' a sentiment 
which, however natural, was most illogical. And he 
showed his faith by his works. The only missionary 
enterprise under Universalist auspices that had a name 
to live was the Home Mission, carried on by the Boston 
Association, its endeavors being limited to the territory 
covered by that body. The new Salem pastor was at 
once made an officer of the Mission, and he plead for 
it, worked for it, always with judicious zeal and always 
in faith. 

We never can sa}- just when an old order of things 
departs and a new order succeeds. This would be 
determining the line which separates the sapling from 
the tree, the boy from the man. We can only approxi- 
mate such a pivotal period. I should assign the change 
somewhat arbitrarily to the year 1850, — not forgetting, 



THE SALEM PASTORATE. 



53 



however, nor failing to record the fact, that certain 
initial movements looking towards church extension, — 
then called home missions, — and the founding of the 
first Universalis t College, had alwaj's given promise of 
realization. And that may be set down as the date, 
not of Mr. Fisher's call to Salem, but of his being en- 
gaged in the work of his large parish. He m&y there- 
fore be said to have entered the neighborhood of the 
leading minds of the denomination just at the time that 
the denomination, under its leaders, was to attempt a 
new phase of enterprise and put itself on a constructive 
and progressive basis. 

The entire period of Mr. Fisher's pastorate in Salem 
was singularly exempt from social convulsion. The 
famous revival under the lead of Elder Jacob Knapp, 
which put all Universalist churches on the defence, and 
which occasioned a popular sympathy in their behalf, 
had been succeeded by a state of public indifference. 
It fell to Rev. Linus S. Everett to minister from the 
pulpit of the Universalist Church during the throes of 
that fanatical agitation. He was a man of war, and in 
the excitement found a congenial element. Those who 
were associated with him during this singular epoch, 
having perhaps different estimates of his general pas- 
toral career, agree in testifying that he led the Univer- 
salist forces in the conflict with great abilit}-. The 
controvers}' was bitter, but it was provoked. The op- 
position to Universalism was pharisaical, unscrupulous, 
immoral. It dealt in attacks on personal character, in 



54 



MEMOIR OF EBEXEZEP, FISHER. 



gross and malicious misrepresentation, in slander and 
untruths. In a word it was wicked, and it disgraced 
all who took a responsible part in conducting it. I am 
told that Mr. Everett paid back in telling invective : 
that he parried the blows of the enemy with consum- 
mate skill : that he maintained an assailed faith with 
unsurpassed eloquence, rigid logic, and a masterly 
handling of the Divine TTord. And he had his reward 
in a wonderful measure of popular approval, his church 
being rilled to the full limits of its capacity. 

Mr. Everett left, and there was an interregnum of 
a little more than a year. A reaction set in. There 
was a falling-off in all the churches. The unusual 
strain was followed by a shrivel quite as marked. Un- 
der these circumstances, Mr. Fisher accepted the call 
from the Salem church. His pastorate in Salem ex- 
tended from May 4. 1847. to Oct. 7. 1853. — about 
six and one-half years. I have said that this was a 
period of profound quiet in the churches. There were 
no theological convulsions : there were few revivals, so 
called. Each of the sects pursued the even tenor of its 
way. but little disposed to interfere with the doings of 
any other. The so-called evangelical churches made 
few attacks upon Universalism or Universalists. They 
certainly attempted no such crusades as followed the 
defection of Matthew Hale Smith and the frantic and 
Pharisaical demonstrations of Mr. Knapp. But they 
stood aloof ; they retained all their self- asserted su- 
periority on the score of sound doctrine and personal 



THE SALEM PASTORATE. 



55 



piety. They had no fellowship with Universalists, and 
never exchanged an ecclesiastical courtesy. It was 
rare that there was even a social recognition. The old- 
est active pastor in the city — that is, of the evangeli- 
cal fold — refused to read notices of even charitable 
meetings, having no manner of sectarian intent, when 
they were to be held in the Universalist church. He 
was a good man ; and he sincerely believed that his 
own pulpit would be contaminated should he, save in 
the way of censure and protest, pronounce the word 
"Universalist" from his sacred desk! I ought, even 
at the risk of an apparent digression, to add that, so far 
as the prejudice against Universalism is concerned, it 
was the profound darkness that brought the morn. 
Not many years after, the same clergyman was willing 
and glad to stand in the Universalist pulpit of the same 
city and preach to the regular congregation, and to do 
this in the Christian courtesy which, out of the vast 
number of Christian themes, selected for elucidation 
one that could offend no prejudice. But, during the six 
years of Mr. Fisher's Salem history, such a courtesy, 
such a sense of propriety, was a thing unheard of; and 
at the time he began that pastorate I doubt if the social 
recognition was ever cordial. 

To meet and stamp out, not simply as unjust but as 
ridiculous, this Pharisaic conceit and occult insult, 
Ebenezer Fisher was a providential man. It was idle 
for any one of any sect to put on the air of superior 
sanctity in the presence of a man who in every accent 



56 



MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



and ever} T act reflected and exemplified the spirit of 
his Divine Master. The great public seldom fails to 
discern character. The Salem public saw, felt, even 
confessed that of the several worthy pastors in that 
staid city, if an}' one was the spiritual Saul, conspicuous 
and commanding in all the elements and graces of the 
Christian profession and character, that man was Eben- 
ezer Fisher. His superiority in those particulars which 
force general homage, in the current expressive phrase, 
" stood out." He could afford not to be noticed, not 
to be sensitive in view of any affectation, occult or ex- 
pressed, of Christian superiority. Public sentiment 
made such an assertion an occasion for derision. To 
the Universalist faith, profession, denomination, and 
work, the name and character of Ebenezer Fisher were 
a savor unto life. 

In this I am dwelling upon the most important phase 
of the Salem pastorate ; yet it is one difficult of descrip- 
tion. It is not one of details, of events, of words ; it is 
one of radiation, and hardly admits of analysis. But I 
would emphasize it as the very highest tribute that can 
be paid to a minister of the gospel. In the subsequent 
change which early came over the churches of the city, 
in the direction of a sounder appreciation of what makes 
the Christian man, and which breathes a much more 
catholic and genial spirit, I trace in a pre-eminent de- 
gree the potent and pervasive spirit of the noble man 
who from 1847 to 1853 filled the pulpit of the Univer- 
salist church. 



THE SALEM PASTORATE. 



57 



The six years during which Mr. Fisher was the Salem 
pastor were, as I have said, years of unusual quiet in 
ecclesiastical circles. The} T , however, mark an impor- 
tant epoch in affairs of State, and in two regards, — 
the one in reference to the institution of slavery, and 
the other in reference to the temperance agitation. 

The Anti-slavery movement may be said to have 
many epochs. The attempted murder of Garrison by 
a Boston mob ; the actual murder of Lovejoy ; the 
martyrdom of Torrey ; the annexation of Texas ; the 
war with Mexico ; the repeal of the Missouri Comprom- 
ise Act ; the enactment of the Fugitive-slave Law, — 
each notes a stage in the antecedents of the most 
blood} T and destructive of all modern wars, ending in 
the destruction of slavery by constitutional provision 
and congressional legislation. At first the agitation 
began in private offices, obscure and protected halls ; 
soon to invade the caucus ; next to monopolize the 
Lyceum ; and then to enter, in some cases to destroy, 
the churches. 

Statesmen, politicians, and pastors soon made the 
unwelcome discovery that, despite themselves, they must 
elect one of two methods of action, — either of which 
would be attended with sacrifice of friendships, of posi- 
tion, of emolument, some of them sincerely believed of 
usefulness. To the question : Precisely what put the 
4 4 bone of contention " into the pulpit ? different per- 
sons, estimating from different points of view, will, in 
the answer, name somewhat different events. If not 



58 



MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



rigidly and chronologically correct, my own answer 
cannot be at all misleading, and it is sufficiently accu- 
rate to answer my present purpose. I designate the 
forming of the Free-soil Party in 1848. Up to this 
event, slavery if not actually was nominally sectional. 
It was a State institution, and the leaders of both the 
great parties were committed against its extension into 
territory at the time free. Henry Clay hardly damaged 
his prestige in the slave States when he said, in the 
United States Senate, that no man was more firmly 
opposed to the extending of the institution into the ter- 
ritories then free, than himself. 

But the results growing out of the war with Mexico 
were attended with a great and prophetic change in this 
vital regard. The determination of the Southern ex- 
tremists was that every new free State should be bal- 
anced with a new slave State. In other words, the 
institution which by common consent had been regarded 
as sectional was to be made national. The object of 
the new political party was to resist the new movement, 
— to check the aggression ; not to interfere with sla- 
very in an}' State, but to prevent its extension in the 
territories which were the property not of- the States, 
but of the Union. 

Whether or not this new danger in the spread of 
barbarism and of barbarizing institutions, with the new 
political movement to resist it, can be said to have 
compelled the churches and the ecclesiastical bodies to 
take a position in regard thereto, — some will see this 



TEE SALEM PASTORATE. 



59 



cause in earlier, others in later, events, — no one will 
dispute me when I say that this was very prominent 
and very marked among the disturbing agencies. The 
division in the church was very serious and very sad. 
The pastor who 6 ' bore his testimony " against the 
growing evil was at once assailed with invective, and in 
many instances was practically, if not officially, notified 
that the church had not employed him as a " preacher 
of politics." The pastor who bravely apologized for 
the institution and made light of the threatened danger, 
or who persisted in avoiding all allusion to the excit- 
ing topic, was assailed as a trimmer, a time-server, 
a betrayer of his Master ; or else he was laughed at 
as a u fossil" utterly dead to the one great living issue. 
The facetious wail of one pastor literally describes the 
dilemma: u If I say a word against slavery, I am 
mobbed : if I say nothing on the subject, still I am 
mobbed ! " 

In regard to the duty of the pulpit, there were two 
very dissimilar theories. The one said that the gospel 
is not a political institution, nor a set of political meas- 
ures, but a spirit and a life. It consists not of meas- 
ures, but of principles. Its address is to the reason and 
the heart, and out of the heart are the issues of life. 
Its counsel was : Preach the gospel, and the gospel 
will take care of the politics. The favorite text was : 
" Eender unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's ; and 
unto God the things that are His." The other theory 
was that the gospel is revealed against all evil ; that it 



60 



MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



proclaims liberty to the captive ; that slavery, being 
" the sum of all villanies," is by pre-eminence the evil 
to be assailed ; that for consequences man is not re- 
sponsible ; that he must do his duty " though the heav- 
ens fall." 

Between these theories, the points of agreement were 
so subtile that there was no room for adjustment or com- 
promise. One party execrated the minister who dis- 
turbed the peace of congregations, and endangered the 
stability of churches. The other party execrated the 
minister who did not, to the extent of his ability and 
opportunity, destroy and buiy out of sight every church 
which did not declare itself against the sin of the day. 
In the contest, many a congregation was scattered, and 
many a church was left to the owls and the bats ; and 
to this day, in not a few communities, the fragments 
have never been gathered up. 

In his youth, Mr. Fisher was a Whig. Every Whig 
at the North was nominally opposed to slavery, — some 
moderately opposed, others strongly opposed. The 
strongly opposed were alarmed. The}- took the name 
of '* Conscience " Whigs to distinguish themselves from 
the " Cotton" Whigs, or those who, in the interests of 
manufacture and trade, were disposed to compromise 
their opposition. The Conscience Whigs merged into 
the new Free-soil Party. 

Mr. Fisher was strongly opposed to slavery, and he 
at once became a member of the new organization and 
acted with it. Still he was conservative. I made this 



THE SALEM PASTORATE. 



61 



discovery the second time I saw him, at his own house 
in Salem. My own antislaveiy feeling was strong, 
and I was in mnch sympathy with the brave minister — 
some called him the rash one — who gave his conviction 
without reserve, and regardless of consequences. Not 
far from Salem, a minister (not Universalist) had b} T his 
" fidelity" divided and, it was supposed, destroyed a 
once large and influential church. In the conviction 
which at the time filled and controlled me, I thought 
only of the " fidelity." Giving the name of the minis- 
ter, I said to Mr. Fisher : 1 ' That is my idea of a 
minister of the Gospel." His reply was : " Because he 
has destroyed a church?" I saw that his mind, if it 
did not rest upon, ver}^ clearly took in, the u conse- 
quences." 

It was nry lot to be very near Mr. Fisher during the 
period which I have described. We talked much upon 
the general subject, and, so far as the principles in- 
volved were concerned, we had no difference of opinion. 
But my own temperament was " radical ; " his was cool 
and conservative. My own judgment as to the ex- 
pedient was not in many regards his. We differed at 
the time. In later years, we more strongly differed. 
As an editor of a denominational paper, I more than 
once felt moved to criticise some of his public utter- 
ances, in which either slavery or some incident of 
slavery made the issue. And he criticised me in turn. 
I should not make any display of my personal convic- 
tions and tendencies in reference to the subject, except 



62 



MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



that, in frankly stating the fact of my dissent, I can the 
more emphatically say that of Mr. Fisher's motives I 
never had a distrust. I thought then, and I now think, 
that he was not actuated b}^ any feeling of selfish tim- 
idity, by any trimming which compromised his integrity. 
He thought it a duty to consider probable consequences, 
and he did not believe that a prudential course was 
necessarily a sacrifice of the great principles involved. 
He sincerely believed that the Christian Church was, 
with all its faults, with all its shortcomings, the most 
precious institution the world possessed. His theory 
was, — to use a phrase which afterwards came into use, 
— that it could be more effectively reformed from within 
than from without. And he had a horror of the icono- 
clastic spirit and the reckless assaults of not a few 
"reformers" with whom antislavery was, in his judg- 
ment, more of a hobby than a conviction. Accordingly 
he at once sought to give expression to his conviction, 
and yet hold to the church persons with whose preju- 
dices he must come in contact. But he never temporized 
in the sense of giving an uncertain sound, of using 
ambiguous terms, of being all things to all men in the 
sense not Apostolic. 

A member of Congress attempted to justify the insti- 
tution of slavery from the Bible. In this the issue was 
changed. Said Mr. Fisher, "If they say I have no 
right to bring the Bible against slavery, they cer- 
tainly have no right to bring slavery against the 
Bible." On that ground he prepared a sermon, every 



THE SALEM PASTORATE. 



63 



word of which went to the quick, ancl this at a time 
when a timid or selfish man would not have ventured 
upon the theme. It gave to many excellent people of 
his congregation deep offence. He was sorry to offend, 
to cross their prejudices, to alienate them from himself; 
but he never retreated from the ground he had taken. 
In ecclesiastical conventions and associations, the u bone 
of contention" was uniformly present, and the usual 
missile, a set of "resolutions," never failed. In every 
case he met the issue, and by speech and vote was 
alwa} r s on the side of liberty. But he did not make the 
theme prominent. His course was, as I have said, 
cautious and considerate. I pause not here to consider 
the question, What will be the judgment upon his 
method when the time shall come for a proper judg- 
ment to be formed? I am content to repeat that his 
motives were pure and his intentions sincere. 

The philanthropic question which the more deeply in- 
terested him was that of temperance. The then recent 
legislation in the State of Maine, under the lead of the 
Honorable Neal Dow, seemed to him just in principle 
and wise in policy. In the pulpit and out of it he was 
the champion of the "Maine Law," — the name for 
legal prohibition begun in the State of Maine. But 
he never forgot, — he complained that many seemed to 
forget, — that the public sentiment must be forced up 
to the requirements of the statute to make the same of 
any avail. He was therefore an earnest and zealous 
worker in the temperance cause. During the period of 



64 



MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



his settlement in Salem he was the leader of that cause 
in the city. By natural appointment, he was put at the 
head of any organization which had the cause of tem- 
perance for its object. If a committee was appointed, 
he was put on it, and then was made its chairman. If 
a public meeting was called, he was appointed -to pre- 
side. If a delegate was to be sent to a temperance con- 
vention, he was made the delegate. If a report was to 
be made, he was summoned to prepare the report. And 
he literally worked, untiring in his fidelity and conscien- 
tious in his zeal. In truth he once complained to me 
that the old city was not up to its duty, and he deeply 
mourned that in so important a cause he had so few 
co-laborers. 

The pastor to whom Mr. Fisher made frequent allu- 
sions as almost ideal was his predecessor, the Rev. 
Lemuel Willis. Other ministers may have excelled 
him in the ability of their discourses, in the brilliancy 
of their rhetoric, in the magnetism of their manner, and 
in the attraction which fills the pews. But — I have 
heard him make the statement frequently — the man 
who put the Salem church on its true basis, who gave 
to it the elements of character, who made it strong and 
influential in the community, was Lemuel Willis. His 
respect for consecrated, toiling, constant workers was 
profound. I may add a remark he once made to me in 
reference to an estimable clerg}~man, who passed on 
several } T ears ago. I made some allusion to the Eev. 
J. W. Putnam, — such an one as naturally elicited Mr. 



THE SALEM PASTORATE. 



65 



Fisher's estimate of his character and his work as a 
minister. "Brother Putnam," said he, "is a man to 
do a great deal of work and make no fuss about it." I 
think it simple fact to say that Mr. Fisher's ideals were 
practical workers. He was alwa} T s about his Master's 
business, and he made no boast of what he attempted. 
I am sure that, in the desirable qualities of character 
and Christian influence, the Salem church greatly pros- 
pered under his ministry. A man whom all must honor 
and respect, even if they cannot in all things agree 
with him in belief and policy, must, even of mod- 
erate ability, be a helper and a strengthener. But to 
the qualities which compel a deference bordering on 
veneration, Mr. Fisher added great abilities. His ser- 
mons were prepared with conscientious care. They 
were packed with thought, and they were aglow with 
the spirituality of his reverent nature. Sometimes, 
indeed, they " shot over," and did not exactly take the 
measure of average capability. Sometimes, from the 
affluence of his imageiy, — in the use of metaphor I 
never knew his superior, — they were not always clear. 
Indeed, I have heard him when the sermon savored 
somewhat of mysticism, and people would say, " I do 
not get the idea." I once heard him on one of his 
favorite topics, — " The Reconciliation of Man to God," 
— in which, as I afterwards told him, he seemed to for- 
get that the majority of hearers are not educated in the 
niceties of theological lore. But in these instances of 
possibly misapplied strength, I am giving the exception 

5 



66 MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



and not the rule. In most instances he was intelligible 
and impressive. He was never exactly a "popular" 
preacher ; he was too great a man to be that. In those 
examples in which men of towering ability are also 
extremely popular, I think they would themselves con- 
fess that the gifts which enable them to please the mul- 
titude are not the ones on which they themselves place 
the highest estimate. The gifted Robertson, perhaps 
without a half-dozen peers in the pulpit of his day, 
whose published sermons are mines of wisdom — of the 
richest thought — was in fact the "popular preacher" of 
a watering-place. He knew that he was, and the con- 
sciousness was the humiliation of his professional life. 
Mr. Fisher had the first-class gifts ; I think he did not 
supplement them with the second class, which take a 
strong hold of the superficial. I am sure that the very 
general confession of his hearers would be that under 
his ministry they were profited rather than electrified, 
and that the}^ found in his inculcations a means of grace. 
I have described meagrely the kind of success which 
rewarded his labors in Salem. It is a much higher 
order of success than that which is 4 £ showy " and as 
evanescent as it is superficial. 

Out of many incidents I select one as illustrative of 
the hold he had upon his people. One of his parishion- 
ers once said to me: "Mr. Fisher called on me the 
other day and said that he wanted money for a chari- 
table object. He was about to explain what the object 
was ; I interrupted him. 4 Mr. Fisher,' I said, 1 I want 



THE SALEM PASTORATE. 



67 



no explanation. Here is the money, and, if you want 
more, call again.' When such a man as he tells me 
that the object is wortlry, I ask no questions." In truth 
he was an Israelite in whom there was no guile. Every 
member of the Salem parish held the Christian ministry 
in higher confidence and respect because of the man 
who occupied the Universalist pulpit. That was Mr. 
Fisher's success. It was a success which every pastor 
might covet. 

Mr. Fisher loved the church of Christ. Between that 
and himself, he would permit nothing to interfere. He 
loved the particular branch of that church which repre- 
sented the Universalist faith. He was wholly devoted 
to the particular local church over which he found him- 
self placed. I heard him once say: "My smallest 
success is where I would have my greatest ; I cannot, 
as I would, interest my people in the ordinances of the 
church." 

In the general affairs of the parish, he rightly deemed 
his labors reasonably successful. His congregations 
were large, regular, and in a great degree interested in 
the work of the parish. He was faithful to all the pas- 
toral duties. He never forgot or neglected the infirm 
or the sick ; and in his parochial labors he remembered 
who was his Master, and he made calls not for gossip 
or mere social pleasure, but for the sake of making 
some impression for good. And in this he was con- 
siderate ; he had no " good talk" which meant nothing ; 
he was not obtrusive in giving his convictions or prof- 



68 MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 

fering counsel ; he knew how to work by indirection. 
But always the end in view was such as became his 
profession and his life. 

In the pulpit he was at once doctrinal and practical, 
— two things which he never divorced. He had a high 
and a strong ambition to make Universalists in belief ; 
he had a higher and a stronger one to make Universalist 
Christians in the temper and conduct of their lives. 

Near the middle of the year 1853, Mr. Fisher was 
taken somewhat suddenly with serious illness. Its pre- 
cise nature was not exactly understood. Possibly it 
was the incipient stage of the disease which ultimately 
proved fatal. But one of its accompaniments was an 
affection of the throat. At the outset it may have been 
nothing more than a throat difficulty. It suddenly dis- 
abled him. He took a rest of several weeks, sojourn- 
ing at his old home in Maine ; but the rest did not 
restore him. It was clear that for the time at least he 
was physically disqualified for the exacting position 
and arduous duties of the Salem pastorate. The future, 
so far as his earthly work was concerned, was dark and 
ominous. He did not know, but he had reason to ap- 
prehend, that his career for this world might be near its 
close. He accordingly resigned his charge Oct. 7, 
1853 ; and, like Abraham of old, he went forth not 
knowing whither. 

I give here extracts from letters to his family and 
friends in Maine, occasioned by the illness and the 
death of his father. They are characteristic in their 



THE SALEM PASTORATE. 



69 



indication of the religious temper of his mind and heart, 
and also reveal the thought with which he contemplated 
the final call. On hearing of his father's illness, he 
writes under date July 4, 1849 (I give but an ex- 
tract) : — 

" Mr. N called here to-day, about an hour before I 

received D 's letter. His report was rather unfavorable as 

to father's health, which it gave us pain to hear. But I have 
thought for many months that his work was almost done ; and 
I trust that, when the will of Providence calls him hence, he 
will be ready to go without reluctance. Death is always near 
to us all, in possibility, and certainly cannot be very remote. 
It is the ordinance of our Creator, and, since it is inevitable, 
and not left to our choice, cannot be a great evil. It does not 
take us beyond the reach of God's goodness, nor beyond his 
government. To my thoughts it has much of sorrow, but more 
of hope : the sorrow is for those who remain, and not for those 
who are called. 

* Its duty done, as sinks the clay, 
Light from its load the spirit flies.' " 

I add an extract from a letter to his Maine people, 
on getting the intelligence of his father's decease. It 
is dated Feb. 19, 1850 : — 

" We received D 's letter on the following Thursday ; 

and I could not but be affected by the intelligence of father's 
death. As he has seemed to be something better, we 
had cherished the hope of seeing him again alive, which was 
what we did not anticipate when we left C . I am thank- 
ful, however, that his departure was so easy, and, as I gathered 
from the letter, attended with so little pain. I felt that his 
work was done, and rejoice that he was spared a painful sick- 



70 MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



ness. No doubt he suffered, yet I hope not severely. We 
ought all to remember that in real philanthropic goodness of 
heart, which desires to help every one, he was eminent. But 
for that perhaps he might have left more worldly goods, but 
not a richer legacy to his children. But he has gone, and the 
best praise is to imitate whatever was excellent in his character. 
It would have been a melancholy pleasure could I have been 
with him to have said the last possible farewell. But I know 
not how soon we shall meet again. 

" I preached last Sunday afternoon on the ' Eecognition of 
Friends in Heaven/ and felt my mind much elevated by the 
consideration of that theme." 



ESSEX MINISTERIAL CIRCLE. 



71 



CHAPTER V. 



THE ESSEX MINISTERIAL CIRCLE. 



The Essex Ministerial Circle. — A School of mutual Criticism. — Its 
Topics. — No Mercy given. — None asked. — Members of the 
Circle. — Ebenezer Fisher the leading Spirit. — His extraor- 
dinary Facility as a Critic. — Fallacies laid bare. — Emotional 
Rhetoric. — Examples of Criticism. — The Manner more than 
the Matter. — Takes his turn as Target. — Visiting Ministers. — 
Becomes famed as a Critic. — An Adjunct of the Circle. — Clas- 
sic Elocution. — " Head Voice." — Private Practice. — A rumored 
" Quarrel " in Church. — The Explanation. — Brutus and Cassius. 
— The Misapprehension natural. 

A S incidental to the Salem settlement, I must go 



•r- ^- back to trace an institution of great importance 
in itself, of greater importance in what it occasioned, — 
the forerunner in some respects of the first Universalist 
theological school. With this incident, Mr. Fisher had 
constant and sympathetic relations. His connection 
therewith was coincident with his labors in the Salem 
parish. 

Of the many associations of ministers for mutual 
improvement, I am led to doubt if any one ever 
accomplished a larger measure of usefulness than the 
" Essex Ministerial Circle." Certainly, of those with 
whose work I am familiar, or of which I have any 




72 MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



means of information, no other has ever done such 
solid and durable service to its members. I was con- 
nected with it for a period of five years, and of its 
members now living probably no one attended so many 
of its sessions as myself. I have seen, in not a few 
instances, rather crude material enter it, to leave it 
with manifold and marked improvements. Many a 
bladder of conceit was punctured within its precincts ; 
many a soaring bird of rhetoric had its wings clipped ; 
many a long-drawn sentence was suddenly con- 
tracted ; manj' a lame metaphor was made to disclose 
its infirmity ; man} T a carefully constructed syllogism 
had its props knocked from under it ; many an am- 
bitious simile was forced to hide its diminished head ; 
many an oratorical climax was brought low, — all under 
the criticism which in that body knew no mercy and 
gave no quarter. 

All manner of topics were duly considered by the 
thinkers of the circle. Unfortunately, the Darwinian 
theory of species, — the formula of the " survival of the 
fittest," — and the sparkling hypotheses of Tyndall 
and Huxley, had not, at the date of the circle's most 
active career, been invented, or at least had attained 
nothing of their present celebrity. We say " un- 
fortunately," for of course they would have been each 
and all duly tested and disposed of. But we had such 
live topics as the 6 1 Vestiges of the Creation ; " the sin- 
fulness of war, even if defensive ; non-resistance ; 
slavery ; the Fugitive Slave Law ; the minister's duty 



ESSEX MINISTERIAL CIRCLE. 



78 



to preach politics in all cases where the politics include 
" moral issues," — every one of which had its measure 
of consideration. To say that Divine sovereignty, free 
will, the origin of evil, the genesis of sin, did not receive 
ample consideration, — the champion in each case set- 
tling the problem, — would be to say that the Circle 
was not composed of clergymen. Just how frequentl) 
the names of Sir William Hamilton, Dr. McCosh, the 
several writers of the " Essays and Reviews," Dugald 
Stewart, and Thomas Babington Macaulay, were enun- 
ciated, and the wisdom of each indorsed or doubted, I 
undertake not to say. I only record the fact that they 
became to us as " household words." I have lived to 
doubt if the Circle settled any of the matters in dis- 
pute ; but with every memory of its active gatherings 
I am renewedly impressed with the disciplinary value 
of the ordeal through which each in his turn passed. 

I have said that the Circle knew no mercy and gave 
no quarter. This is the literal truth of history. In all 
other literary bodies with which I have had any connec- 
tion, there was ever a disposition to temper justice with 
mercy ; to sugar-coat the bitter potion ; to clothe an ad- 
verse comment in apologetic phraseology, — in a word, 
to let the victim down gently. If there was ever any 
thing of this humane temper manifested in the Essex 
Circle, it was always by the newest comer in making 
his maiden criticism. But he never repeated the weak- 
ness. At his second visit he was almost uniformly 
put into the pillory ; and if any mark of human kind- 



74 MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



ness for the perpetrator of a lame sentence or a faulty 
deduction remained in him, the ordeal never failed to 
dry it at its source. The scalpel was the implement, 
and a searching thoroughness in its use was the rule 
with no exception. 

Such is the strange force of custom that I do believe 
the gibbet would have but a tithe of its horror if, from 
the nature of the case, its office were not such as to 
preclude the idea of repetition. I know this, — that 
the first experience of being a target for every one's 
arrow often gave great pain. But I recollect hardly 
an instance in which, on the repetition, the victim did 
not rather enjoy it. He knew that for every assailant 
his turn was coming ! In fact, any thing savoring of 
leniency to error or its author was unanimously voted 
a weakness ; and the unmanly display only provoked 
derisive comment. The name of ' ' Mutual Admiration 
Societies " is legion. The Essex Circle was never one 
of them. 

I recall the names of not a few, dear in our church 
annals, who took an active and interesting part in the 
work of that very industrious association. Of those 
who have gone upward the names recur to me of James 
W. Putnam, Stillman Barden, Elbridge O. Brooks, 
E. W. Reynolds, Ira Washington. Of those yet living, 
I recall the familiar names of Ellis, Jewell, Reed, Tal- 
bot, Johnson, Moore, Guilford, and Case. Could the 
departed articulate their judgment, I am sure they 
would agree with the living in pronouncing Ebenezer 



ESSEX MINISTERIAL CIRCLE. 



75 



Fisher the soul of the Essex Ministerial Circle. In 
certain specialties of faculty and attainment others may 
have excelled him ; but the talent which above all others 
is called into exercise by the work of such a body, was 
the talent in which it has often seemed to me he 
excelled all others whom I have ever intimately known. 
He was by pre-eminence a critic, and one who knew how 
to put a criticism into clear, pungent, incisive phrase- 
ology. Save as respects certain departments of thought 
for which he said he had but little talent, and in respect 
of which he certainly had no taste, he had an eye for a 
fallacy clear and acute beyond any of his associates. 
No rhetorical glitter ever misled his vision. He looked 
through clouds of verbiage and distinctly saw u the 
point." Many of the syllogisms which when ornately 
clothed and enunciated with emotion take captive the 
average listener, were instantly dissolved and exhibited 
in their naked weakness, when it became Mr. Fisher's 
turn to pass a judgment. 

I recall many examples: here is one. The law just 
enacted made it a crime to feed or harbor the fugitive 
from slavery. The question was put thus: "Could a 
man with a heart in his body see the fleeing, panting 
slave, with the hound upon his track, struggling with 
the last vigor of breath and muscle to escape the man- 
hunter, — could a man with a heart in his body refuse 
such a poor mortal a cup of cold water and a crust of 
bread? " Mr. Fisher's reply was satisfactory enough to 
the essayist, but it included this: u The probability is 



76 MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



that there will be no bloodhound nor faltering footstep ; 
the fugitive will probably come in the cars and expect 
a warm dinner ! " Uniformly he brushed away the cob- 
web of emotional rhetoric, and directed his criticism to 
the literal situation. On one occasion, an attempt was 
made to vindicate God's ways by the familiar reasoning 
that if he ordains evil, he does so only to bring about 
some ulterior good. Mr. Fisher did not object to the 
general drift of the argument, but the word " ordains " 
seemed to him fallacious and of immoral import. His 
comment was : "In physics you may strike here in 
order to get an effect there ; but in morals that method 
is suicidal. The very act is destructive of morals." 

I recall an essay which built up in the usual order of 
logical sequence the doctrine that " God decrees what- 
soever comes to pass," — in which ratiocination the 
power of the stronger motive was insisted upon as 
absolutely determining the subsequent act. Mr. Fish- 
er's comment was: "Very good! The conclusion 
comes from the premises, and is unanswerable. But 
there is Brother ," pointing to a champion of free- 
will who was present, ' £ who can construct just as con- 
clusive an argument, on premises just as palpable, for 
just the opposite theory. The truth is, each of these 
logical tubs must stand on its own bottom, and neither 
can get into the place of the other. How to adjust and 
harmonize the two I do not know, — I do not believe 
that anybody knows." 

I remember an instance when the essayist introduced 



ESSEX MINISTERIAL CIRCLE. 



77 



a " gorgeous rainbow." Mr. Fisher's note upon it was, 
" As rainbows are usually gorgeous, the fact might be 
presumed ; there is no occasion to state it." A some- 
what radical brother, in alluding to a pastor in another 
denomination whose fidelity to temperance had pro- 
duced a serious division, said of him, " He did a holy 
thing in breaking up that church." Mr. Fisher asked, 
" Do you mean to imply that he meant to break up the 
church? If he did, he is a very bad man. If he simply 
meant to preach the truth, and the truth happened to 
break up the church, that is a different case. But no 
man is a Christian who makes a business of breaking 
up churches." 

I am not sure that I could not fill from memory a 
chapter of similar criticisms. He overflowed in the 
spontaneity of the criticising faculty. A pertinent 
comment seemed to shoot from his brain as an arrow 
from a fully bent bow. But the words of the criticism 
failed to give their full force. The manner of criticism 
was as much as the matter, — the manner was matter. 
It overawed. For the instant it left the object half 
paralyzed. There was a tone of power and of conclu- 
siveness that made the word strangely impressive. The 
critic was the embodiment of character, and he spoke 
as one having authorit}^. The wives of the ministers 
were always welcome, — indeed were expected. The 
frequent remark of the latest woman visitor was : " The 
essay appeared good till Mr. Fisher took hold of it, and 
then it seemed as if he left nothing of it ! " In truth 



78 



MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER, 



it often so " seemed," even when a recuperative judg- 
ment was surprised to find that there was not sufficient 
reason for the seeming. It is a proverb that those who 
most freely give are the least willing to take. In the 
person of Mr. Fisher, the proverb did not hold. When 
his day came, he never failed to produce his essay and 
then take his seat in the " dock." Save, it may be, to 
correct an error of fact, he never interrupted the brother 
who might be " paying him back in kind." He would 
simply make a note of the comment, and then in pa- 
tience wait. And if he could be severe upon an 
erring thinker, he could be equally severe upon him- 
self as his own shortcomings were uncovered. No one 
ever saw him manifest the shadow of impatience, as one 
by one the brothers sought to lay bare vulnerable points 
in his effort. I have said that no favor was shown in 
the process of criticism. It was in this, the great and 
the peculiar merit of the Essex Circle, that Mr. Fisher 
had impressed thereupon his own identity. 

Visiting clergymen, or those who might be in the 
vicinity on occasions of an exchange, were always 
invited to the hospitalities, literary and material, of the 
Circle. Hence the impression and the commanding 
ability of its most influential member became widely 
known. Strangers would return to their homes to tell 
what " a remarkable man the} 7 have in the Essex Circle." 
He became famed as a critic ; and when, in another 
State, a man was wanted for the difficult and responsible 
office of training young men for the Christian ministry, 



ESSEX MINISTERIAL CIRCLE. 



79 



here was one tested and approved. The Canton Theo- 
logical School was doubtless to be ; but I very much 
doubt if it would have ever become the peculiarly suc- 
cessful institution it has now proved itself but for the 
Essex Ministerial Circle. In not a few vital regards, I 
am confident the school was that Circle " continued." 

I am here tempted to relate an incident which, though 
not exactly pertaining to the Circle, is at least one of 
its adjuncts. The object of the Association was mani- 
fold. It included every practicable thing which could 
improve a minister in his general work. Hence, not 
alone the style, thought, and logic, but the elocution 
and gesture as well, were proper matters for criticism 
and amendment. In the particular of elocution, it was 
clear that something was needed besides pointing out 
defects. What to do and how to do were even more 
essential. Regret was often expressed that a suita- 
, ble teacher was not available. At that time there were 
no schools of oratory, and experts in developing voice 
were not abundant. 

One evening Mr. Fisher called to see me with most 
important news. A man highly recommended had 
presented himself, whose vocation it was to develop the 
" head voice," — that is, a voice which not only fills a 
room, but gives impetus to the articulated word. A 
more welcome visitor could not have been imagined. 
His business of sending a word like an arrow, of giving 
it " impact," of sending it "clear into the soul," — why, 
that was the primary condition of all effective speaking. 



80 



MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



Mr. Fisher had full faith in the teacher : indeed he was 
accomplished in his art. A class made up of members 
of the Circle was at once found, and the manufacturer 
of orators was told to do his best. Such were the 
kindness and the catholicity of the class, that recruits 
from the Gentiles were admitted. Our number en- 
larged. I must here give no names, but out of that 
class came forth in due time a judge of the Massachu- 
setts Supreme Court, and also — wonderful to relate — 
the creator of a " new religion," now well known to 
fame in two continents ! 

It was in the contract that we should give ourselves 
for the time wholly up to the new business. Our teacher 
gave us daily an hour's lesson. In his absence we were 
expected to use all of our available time in u working 
the lesson in." The stereotyped injunction was, " You 
must ingrain it." He chose to say that both Mr. Fisher 
and myself would succeed admirably in this art of giving 
thought the coveted " impetus ; " and he suggested for our 
frequent exercise a particular selection from Shakspeare. 

The exercise was a boisterous one, and it called for 
not a little physical demonstration. Where could we 
go to be out of sight and hearing? Mr. Fisher sug- 
gested that we should make available the out-of-the-way 
and spacious Universalist church — the one of which he 
was pastor. Accordingly we — he and myself — met 
there often. We took possession of the middle aisle ; 
and, as there could be no one to see and hear, we could 
try the "impact" and " impetus" without let or hin- 



ESSEX MINISTERIAL CIRCLE. 



81 



derance. Matters went on nicely. I saw great im- 
provement in my companion : he saw no less in me. 
And there was no " one to dispute." 

But — such are the mishaps that may befall all human 
schemes — a bit of scandal got out upon the streets of 
quiet old Salem, to the effect that two Universalist min- 
isters had been quarrelling in the Universalist church ; 
that words between them were high and threatening ; 
that each ran to the other shaking his fist ; and, by 
way of specification, it was added that one said to the 
other, " You will be sorry for this ; " and, further, one 
called the other a " rascal." 

The explanation was soon discovered. It seemed 
that the "impact" of our enunciation had passed 
through windows and shutters. Certain boys, curious 
to know what was going on in the usually quiet sanc- 
tuary, had climbed to the window-sill, and, peering 
through the shutter, not only heard a few words of our 
declamation, but saw gesticulating accompaniments. 
At once they ran and spread the rumor of an encounter 
in the church between two infuriated Universalist 
ministers ! 

As for the specification that one accused the other 
of doing something he would be sorry for, a few lines 
of the exercise our teacher had selected for our 6 6 drill " 
will give the needed light. It was the quarrel between 
Brutus and Cassius, from the fourth act of "Julius 
Caesar." My part was that of Cassius ; Mr. Fisher's 
was Brutus. Under the instructions, Cassius was to 

6 



82 



MEMOIR OF EBEXEZER FISHER. 



take a position at some distance from Brutus, and rap- 
idly move towards him. making a threatening gesticula- 
tion, and say : — 

" Do not presume too much upon my love ; 
I may do that I shall be sorry for " 

Then Brutus retorts : — 

" You have done that you should be sorry for. 
There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats ; 
For I am armed so strong in honest}', 
That they pass by me as the idle wind, 
"Which I respect not." 

Brutus then proceeds to enumerate certain favors he 

had besought of Cassius. which the latter "denied" 

him. — among other things. " gold to pay his legions ; " 

and he breaks out. with proper physical action : — 

" AVas that done like Cassius ? 
Should I have answered Caius Cassius so ? 
When Marcus Brutus grows so covetous, 
To lock such rascal counters from his friends, 
Be ready, gods, with all your thunderbolts, 
Dash him to pieces ! " 

Our teacher had been particular to explain that, in 
order to give due effect to " the rascal." the " r" must 
be " rolled with a rasping or grating accent." and the 
enunciation of "Dash him to pieces!" must suit the 
action to the words. Those who knew Mr. Fisher, 
remembering his large frame and heavy voice, can well 
understand that the impersonation to eyes and ears 
which could not take in the whole, must have been 
misinterpreted. Neither the " Cassius " nor the " Bru- 
tus " suffered from the scandal. 



FAST OR ATE AT SOUTH DEDHAM, 



83 



CHAPTER VI. 



THE PASTOEATE AT SOUTH DEDHAM. 



Treated "by Dr. Warren. — Rapid Improvement. — Able again to 
preach. — The South Dedham Parish. — Its Temperance Record. 
— Mr. Fisher's happy Pastorate. — His Success. — A Call that 
was a Command. — The Command obeyed. 

"YTERY fortunate was Mr. Fisher in securing the 



T service of an experienced, skilful, and faithful 
physician, — Dr. Warren of Boston. Throat disease 
was his specialty. The ailment of his patient he pro- 
nounced laryngitis. Before his resignation in Salem, 
he had put himself under Dr. Warren's advice ; and the 
advice was not to think of remaining in a position 
where the duty of public speaking in a large church 
edifice must be so severe a strain upon the throat. It 
was his advice that proved most effective in determining 
him to seek release from a very arduous pastorate. The 
skilful and repeated application of some caustic gave 
him great relief. His physician did not deem his illness 
so serious as to give occasion for alarm. The recovery, 
though perhaps never complete, was rapid. A short 
time after beginning the treatment, I met him in the 
store of Abel Tompkins, one of the leading Universalist 
book-publishers, on Cornhill. He approached me with 




84 



MEMOIR OF EBEXEZER FISHER. 



unusual elasticity, and in a tone of much relief said : 
"I think Dr. Warren fully understands my case. I 
believe he will cure me. I am making rapid progress. 
I feel once more like preaching." His confidence was 
well founded. Unless the heart disease which many 
years after proved fatal was but a remote development 
of the difficulty, he substantially recovered, — so much 
so that he was able to carry successfully through great 
difficulties that triumphant enterprise which, by dis- 
tinction, was the work of his life. Strange to remem- 
ber that just at tne period when he feared his work was 
done, his great work was really to begin ! 

The parish in South Dedham (afterwards Norwood) 
was great in character, but small in numbers. The 
church was small ; the neighborhood was not large. 
The duties could not by any necessity be very exacting. 
It was just the position in which a minister recovering 
from illness might be able to labor without detriment. 
Almost by instinct, the South Dedham people saw their 
great opportunity. Mr. Fisher felt that the opening 
was almost a special providence. In the month of 
November, 1853, he was in due form the pastor of the 
South Dedham Universalis^ Church. The result justi- 
fied every expectation. The pastor grew in health, 
and the parish grew in numbers and in influence. ( The 
Honorable Joseph Day, of the parish committee, who 
appreciated and loved his minister, once said to me : 
" Mr. Fisher's sickness was overruled for good to us. 
But for that we never could have had such a minister." 



PASTORATE AT SOUTH DEDHAM. 



85 



In his new home, the pastor was not only content : 
he was happy. He had the full confidence, the full 
sympathy, the full co-operation of the whole parish, — 
it seems hardly an exaggeration to say, of the whole 
community. The town was proud of him. To the 
church he was a tower of strength. Devoted, heart, 
mind, and hand, to the cause of temperance, it soothed 
and strengthened him to find the people entirely with 
him, not simply to approve, but to second all his 
endeavors in the sacred reform. 

Many years before, the Rev. Edwin Thompson, at the 
time pastor of the South Dedham parish, made one of 
his characteristic attacks upon the rum traffic. Genial 
in soul, never irritating any one, always hopeful, but 
as inflexible of purpose as an apostle, he had put his 
hand to the plough not to look back. He converted all 
who had need of conversion ; he confirmed the wavering 
and strengthened the weak ; he put the parish upon the 
foundation of the gospel of sobriety. From that day 
to the present it has never wavered. From that day till 
now it has been a leading influence in the temperance 
work of Norfolk county and of the State. Mr. Fisher 
was both happy and grateful that he could step into the i 
good work which Mr. Thompson many years before 
had begun. 

The affairs of the parish were carefully attended to. 
The church grew in numbers and in power. The finances 
were u brought up." So happy were the people of the 
parish that, for a period of little more than four years, 



86 



MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



all the interests of the church went smoothly as a 
marriage bell. The Rev. George Hill, in the memorial 
discourse already referred to as preached in the Nor- 
wood church, has tersely and comprehensively sum- 
marized the history of South Dedharn settlement. He 
says : — 

' 4 At the end of six years' hard labor, his voice gave way, and 
he was obliged to resign his charge in Salem, and seek rest and 
attend to his health. He feared at one time that he should be 
obliged to give up his profession ; but his strong constitution 
saved him, so that in a few months he felt strong enough to 
take charge of a small society in the country, where out-of-door 
exercise might be combined with the work of the ministry. 
South Dedham presented such an opening ; and, receiving a 
unanimous call, he came here in the fall of 1853, and com- 
menced his labors as your pastor, preaching in the little old 
church which preceded this. You know his history here, and 
how much, under God, he was permitted to do to advance our 
faith in this place. He soon regained his health, and took an 
active part in the growth and welfare of all the material and 
spiritual interests of the village. He attracted people by his 
earnest sincerity ; he convinced them by his broad views of the 
divine government and his irresistible logic ; he made friends 
by his kindly intercourse, — and very soon became the leading 
clergyman in the place. The society began to grow, not only 
in numbers and financial ability, but in moral and religious 
power and influence. The Sunday school took a new start, a 
church was organized, and the spiritual force of Universalism 
was brought to your minds as it probably never had been pre- 
sented before. His moral influence was a tower of strength 
among you. He was on the side of education, temperance, 
antislavery, — showing that Universalism included all the great 
practical reforms of the age, — and was the friend of man in all 



PASTORATE AT SOUTH DEB HAM. 



87 



his needs and under all his disabilities. He did grand work 
for you, leaving a name and an influence which are still fresh 
and potent in your midst." 

I have made reference to the coincidence that, iii his 
providential call to South Dedham, Mr. Fisher had 
simply gone back to the home of his ancestors. I have 
quoted Mr. Hill on this point. He further says : " The 
late Ebenezer Fisher Ga}^, as also Ebenezer Fisher, 
D.D., and E. F. Talbot, were named for a great- 
uncle of Dr. Fisher, being descendants on the mother's 
side." Both Mr. Gay and Mr. Talbot were active 
members of the South Dedham parish. Mr. Fisher, 
therefore, had the peculiar happiness of being connected 
as a pastor with his kindred. 

I have said that in this country pastorate Mr. Fisher 
found every thing to his wish, and he was fully content. 
Had his object been to seek no other than his personal 
comfort, he never could have been induced to forsake 
the peaceful abode. But God had raised up this giant 
Saul for a distinct mission. Ebenezer Fisher never 
thought of personal comfort when the Divine call came 
to him. Satisfied that duty pointed in any direction, 
no matter how hard the road to be travelled, how try- 
ing the ordeal in store, he obe3 r ed. In the month of 
January, 1858, Mr. Fisher was summoned to a position 
as yet untried by any one, — a position for which nature 
and grace had given him great qualifications. He was 
satisfied that the new call was a divine command. He 
obeyed. The special work of his useful career was to 



88 MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



begin, and for about twenty years it was carried for- 
ward without a halt, and through obstacles at times dis- 
heartening, to a degree of success hardly anticipated. 
I turn aside from the biographical part of this history 
to prepare the way for an intelligible presentation of 
the career at Canton. 



TEE UNIVERSALIST MOVEMENT. 



89 



CHAPTER VII. 



THE UNIVERSALIST MOVEMENT. 



Two Classes of Denominations. — The One a Movement in the 
Mass. — The Other the Accretion of scattered Individuals. — 
Examples. — Church of England. — The Unitarian. — The Meth- 
odist. — The Congregationalism — The Universalist. — A Gath- 
ering of separate Individuals. — Therefore started with Nothing. 
What it has, its own Creation. — The institutional Epoch. — The 
practical Question. — How it has been Answered. — The hard 
Struggle. — The Victory. 



CORRECT history of religious denominations 



very soon divides these into two classes, — those 
in which men have changed their belief and ecclesias- 
tical relations in masses, and those in which the change 
has been individual. I must make this distinction 
clear. In the one case some edict — an official pro- 
clamation or a majority vote — decrees that the organ- 
ism with all its property, which has stood for a particular 
theology and form of worship, shall henceforth stand 
for a different, it may be an opposite, theology and form 
of worship. In the other case, individuals are sepa- 
rately converted from other beliefs : they spontaneously 
come into new relations, and take a new name, and 
profess new convictions ; and they do this as individ- 
uals, and they come from different quarters and from 




90 



MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



different associations. For example, we may suppose 
(I do not know that such a case ever occurred) that 
the majority having the management of a Presbyterian 
church — one that has acquired property in the form 
of church, chapel, and parsonage — votes to become 
Baptist, and to bring with it all its possessions into the 
Baptist denomination. That would be a change in the 
mass. Or suppose (what has frequently been the case) 
that one person who had been Presbyterian, another 
who had been Methodist, another who had been Epis- 
copalian, and another who had been Unitarian, were 
each to become Baptist and to unite in forming a 
Baptist church. That would be simply an individual 
change. Each would bring himself or herself, and 
there would be no church property to transfer. 

The first Christian churches were composed of con- 
verts who had come, in this separate, individual way, 
into the Christian faith. Xo edict, or statute, or vote 
transferred the synagogues, with all their equipments, 
into churches. THth rare exceptions, the Congrega- 
tional churches of New England had the same kind of 
origin ; so had the Methodist, and so had the Uni- 
versalist. 

It must be confessed that the new ecclesiastical 
organisms, which were but older ones transformed, had 
certain apparent advantages. As the edict or vote 
took the ecclesiastical property along with the church, 
the new organism had its churches, parsonages, edu- 
cated clerg}' often, and all the outfit, at its start. The 



THE UNIVERSALIST MOVEMENT. 



91 



late O. A. Brownson never wearied in telling the Church 
of England — and there was a cutting emphasis in the 
telling — that its splendid cathedrals, abbeys, and 
churches were in literal truth but so many thefts. 
Henry VIII. and Archbishop Cranmer began by steal- 
ing that which Catholic sacrifice and consecration had 
constructed. Henry and his cohorts, Mr. Brownson said, 
were robbers of churches. The Establishment was but a 
colossal robber. Most of the early Unitarian churches 
of New England came in the mass. Orthodox churches 
were voted Unitarian, and that which had been Ortho- 
dox property — the fruit of Orthodox toil, its gifts to the 
Lord — passed into new and hostile hands. A judicial 
decision pronounced the parish, which anybody might 
join, the legal body and custodian of the property, the 
sacramental service alone excepted. The law knew 
nothing of the church which only certain ones could 
join. A majority of one in the parish could therefore 
dispossess a church which might be a unit against 
the transformation. The Orthodox Congregationalists 
made bitter complaints against what they deemed a 
sacrilege and a robbery under the forms and the pro- 
tection of a judicial decree. I am not now to argue the 
ethical merits of these parish votes by which churches 
were dispossessed. My sole purpose, in the sketch or 
description which I have given, is to account for and 
emphasize the fact that the Universalist denomination 
here in the United States began with nothing. Save in a 
few cases, and these at a later period, no authoritative 



92 



MEMOIR OF EBEXEZER FISHER, 



parish vote put it into possession of church edifices, 
church' parsonages, and church schools. It might, in 
the language of the ritual somewhat modified, say, u % 
brought nothing into the world with me." Of every 
equipment it was naked. It had no clergy, save in the 
few cases where individual clergymen of other sects be- 
came converts to its tenets, and voluntarily came for- 
ward to give to their advocacy the benefit of their 
culture. Like the Methodist, the Universalist depended 
for its clergy upon the zealous and conscientious men 
who gave themselves to the cause, — gave what they 
had. — and this, as a somewhat general rule, was such 
learning as they had " picked up," and such prepara- 
tions as a diligent and independent study of the Word 
had matured. So the Universalist movement started 
in poverty, — without church, academy, college, or 
theological school. Mr. Brownson, with a side-meaning 
whereof I here make no account, would have said that 
the Universalist movement was at least an honest one. 
It robbed no other sect. In truth, from foundation to 
turret, the Universalist church in America has made, 
earned, and paid for, whatever it now has. 

I confess that I record this fact of the poverty of the 
denomination with pride. I would not have the fact 
otherwise than as history records it. In the year 1843, 
General Lewis Cass, a leading statesman of that day, 
delivered a political speech in Cleveland, Ohio. I heard 
the speech, but remember only a single passage, which 
may be aptly cited in this connection. He referred to 



I 



TEE UNIVERSALIST MOVEMENT. 



the "Log Cabin" argument, which did so much in 
1840 to put General Harrison into the White House. 
General Cass said : u It is nothing against a man — on 
the contrary it is something to his credit — to begin with 
a log cabin ; but it is much against him if he stays a 
long time in it. I began my domestic career in a log 
cabin. I am proud to say that I had enterprise enough 
to get into something better in no great length of 
time." 

The Universalists began by preaching in private 
houses, in barns, in groves, or in halls temporarily 
hired. They began with such an equipment of preach- 
ers as they could extemporize. Save in the few cases 
where educated ministers were converted from other 
beliefs, they relied upon whatever talent and whatever 
attainments might offer themselves, insisting only that 
the preacher should be zealous and faithful, and preach 
from the Sacred Word. The preacher, therefore, with an 
occasional exception, was not an educated man in any 
higher sense of the word. This was the 4 4 log cabin " 
epoch, the pioneer epoch, the poor epoch, in the Uni- 
versalist movement in America. With the celebrated 
statesman whom I have named, but with a slight modi- 
fication in the applying of his words, I would say : " It 
was nothing against — it was, rather, much to the credit 
of — the Universalist denomination that it began with 
its log cabin ; but it would have been much against the 
denomination to have perpetually remained therein." 

To retain the metaphor, the question in due time 



i 
I 



94 



MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



came, "Will the Universalists have enterprise enough 
to quit the 1 cabin ' for the ' framed house ' ? " This 
question introduces what has been aptly designated 
the Institutional epoch of the Universalist movement. 
Finding the academies under hostile sectarian influences, 
whereby the children of Universalist parents educated 
therein are insidiously won from the faith of their 
parents, will the Universalists have academies of their 
own, and so protect their young from adverse creeds ? 
Finding the colleges for the most part under the au- 
spices of the Calvinistic sects, will the Universalists 
endow their own higher institutions of learning, and 
make them potential in shielding the minds and hearts 
of young men against the enemies of their faith ? And 
will they take the great, the indispensable precaution of 
securing an educating clerg}', — a bod}' in which they 
may take an honest pride, on which they may depend 
when prejudice, false interpretations of Scripture, and 
Pharisaic hate, shall assail the faith that was first 
delivered to the saints? The several questions are 
included in one : 4 c Will the Universalist denomination 
see that the institutions are absolutely indispensable if 
it is to have a future, and will it rise to the responsi- 
bility ? " This question ma}- take a different verbal form, 
with its meaning unchanged: "Will the Universalist 
communion have a sufficient conviction of the truth of 
its principles, and also of the practical value of these 
principles to quicken and sustain the enterprise of 
securing the indispensable equipments?" 



THE UNIVERSALIST MOVEMENT, 95 



I am describing the career of one who, in the period 
of twenty-one years of hard service, did a lion's share in 
the introduction of an Institutional epoch into the Uni- 
versalist church. To appreciate his great work, it is 
needful that we have before us the " situation," — to 
use an expressive word, the particular meaning of 
which was too clear during the anxieties and uncer- 
tainties of the recent national struggle. Just what was 
the status of the Universalist church in 1858, the year 
of Mr. Fisher's call to Canton? In the matter of 
schools, of institutions, what were the antecedents? 
What had been done? What }'et remained to be ac- 
complished ? Of the chain of causes which have brought 
the Universalist church to its present position, — which, 
though yet sufficiently imperfect, in many things a 
promise rather than a realization, has at least the 
apparent pledge of a future, — what link did Ebe- 
nezer Fisher forge, and just where in the chain shall 
we look for that link? 

In his centennial sermon, preached before the Gen- 
eral Convention of Universalists at the hundredth an- 
niversary of the denomination, in September, 1870, 
the Rev. A. A. Miner, D.D., who certainly had earned 
the right to give the histor}^ of the denomination in this 
matter of its institutions, says : — 

" At that time [1840] we had no colleges, no divinity schools, 
no well-endowed academies. Westbrook Seminary, in Maine, 
incorporated in 1830 ; Clinton Liberal Institute, in New York, 
founded in 1832 ; with the Orleans Liberal Institute, at 



96 



MEMOIR OF EBEXEZER FISHER. 



Glover, Vermont ; and the Green Mountain Institute, at South 
Woodstock, Vermont, — which severally were but feebly, if at 
all, endowed, — were all the institutions of learning we could 
boast. 

" As early as 1814, a seminary was projected ; and in the 
three or four following years committees were enjoined to raise 
the sum of five thousand dollars to carry the project into effect. 
Nothing, however, was accomplished. Various other enter- 
prises were meditated from time to time, but were either never 
started, or came to a premature end. 

"But about twenty years ago, almost simultaneously east 
and west, there were put forth well-considered efforts for the 
founding of higher institutions of learning. The immediate 
results, after much toil, were Lombard University, in the West, 
and Tufts College, in the East, both but meagrely endowed. 
A new impulse, however, seemed almost at once to move our 
vhole Church, and its fruits have been most happy. 

" St. Lawrence L'niversity, with its two professional schools 
in northern New York ; Dean Academy, with its magnificent 
endowment, in Massachusetts ; Jefferson Institute, with its ele- 
gant edifice, in Wisconsin ; Green Mountain Central Institute, 
with its solid and commodious structure, in Vermont ; Smith- 
son College, handsomely begun, in Indiana ; Buchtel College, 
so munificently assured by Hon. John R. Buchtel, in Ohio ; 
and the strengthening every way of institutions previously 
established, — are the remoter results and the prophecy of a 
better day for our Church. 

" Now we number not less than seven academies, five col- 
leges, established and establishing ; three professional schools, 
two of divinity and one of law, possessing an aggregate prop- 
erty of not less than two millions of dollars. 

" Fifty years ago our whole Church stood appalled by the 
proposition to raise five thousand dollars for educational pur- 
poses. Now we have two millions invested and employed to 
the same end. Twenty years ago, some of our wisest men were 



THE UNIVEESALIST MOVEMENT. 97 



in grave doubt whether in all our land we could raise a hun- 
dred thousand dollars for the founding of a college. Not only 
was this accomplished, but there has been contributed, for the 
same general purpose, an average of a hundred thousand dollars 
a year ever since ; and in our centenary period alone we are 
proposing to raise millions. Surely, ' to him that hath shall 
be given, and he shall have abundance.' " 

The unlooked-for contingenc}- of a great conflagration 
in one instance, and of financial shrinkages as incidents 
of the hard times since 1872, — events which human 
wisdom could not foresee in 1870, — would compel 
something of a modification of this general statement if 
to be made in 1880. Yet the statement is largely true 
even now, and it succinctly meets the question how the 
responsibilities of the institutional epoch have been met. 
And it will also give me an opportunity to designate 
in the proper connection Ebenezer Fisher's place and 
part in the great enterprise. I will so far anticipate as 
to say that in 1870, when the centennial sermon was 
preached, Dr. Fisher was in the thirteenth year of his 
labors in the Theological School at Canton, New York, 
and just one year before that date, an extra endowment 
had placed the school not by any means upon an 
affluent or sufficient, but a secure, foundation. 

I must warn the reader, who may not be informed in 
the details of this history, against the inference or the 
impression that the results which are epitomized in this 
extract from the centennial Sermon were other than 
the fruits of persistent, painful, at times extremely 

7 



98 



MEMOIR OF EBEXEZER FISHER. 



anxious endeavors of the few. exhorting and urging the 
many. Xo : it is the old story. Not on a flowery 
bed were the leaders of this institutional epoch of Uni- 
versalisin borne in triumph to the end they sought. — 
the leaders of institutions which depend upon individual 
offerings seldom are. Moses, in leading the Israelites 
out of the house of bondage, found his chief obstacles 
not in the hostility of the Amalekites and Ammonites, 
but in the indifference, inappreciation. faltering faith, 
of his own people. In Frothinghanrs " Siege of Bos- 
ton.'' — the most detailed and the most instructive 
chapter of American history yet written. — the fact 
which chiefly impresses me is the painful one that the 
Eevolution was the work of a few. and this work 
consisting mainly in conquering the lukewarmness of the 
many. The great Washington was great in no other 
trait of his character so much as in the courage and the 
hope with which he resisted the apathy of those on 
whom he had a right to depend. 

I must not say that in the achievements of the Uni- 
versalist people in America, they went with alacrity to 
their work. Such a statement would contradict the 
general tenor of history. The treasure of the faith was 
in earthen vessels. Here as in other historic evolu- 
tions the few not simply led, but almost constrained the 
many. 

In the fall of 1850, I for a few days accompanied the 
late Eev. Dr. Otis A. Skinner in his efforts to raise 
money in Essex County for Tufts College. That was. 



THE UNIVERSALIST MOVEMENT. 



99 



it may be remembered, the date I have fixed upon as 
designating the pivotal one which began the missionary 
and institutional epoch of the Universalist denomina- 
tion. At that date, it was a new thing to ask the Uni- 
versalist people to contribute for church enterprises 
other than those of the parish, and the momentum of 
habit was strong. I felt in its fulness, almost in its 
bitterness, the truth of Mr. Skinner's words to me in 
view of the difficulties and the slow progress: " You 
see that to every person I call upon I have to give the 
entire argument ; then have to wait a long time for him 
to make up his mind ; and then he thinks he has done 
something generous if he subscribes ten dollars ! " It 
was discovered that giving is a habit, — an acquired 
talent, — and that hardly any attainment needs more 
of educating or developing. I have heard the Rev. 
Dr. Dolphus Skinner tell how hard he worked, and how 
much he suffered in body as well as in mind, walking 
the streets of New York, in an effort to raise a few 
thousand dollars to meet a crisis in the Clinton Liberal 
Institute. In all efforts for the general good, the rule 
is that the cross comes before the crown. The able, 
faithful, and consecrated men of the Universalist de- 
nomination had, yet have, no exceptional experience 
in this regard. The kingdom has been taken with vio- 
lence ; it has been entered through much tribulation. 
But despite the bitterness of hope deferred, the pain of 
anxious solicitude, the gnawing sense of inexcusable 
neglect, the constant reminder of the proverb, " Out of 



100 



MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



sight, out of mind," in which griefs Dr. Fisher had a 
full share, — fidelity has generally been rewarded at 
last. The time comes when the strange apathy yields, 
when the sense of personal responsibility is quickened, 
and the victory comes. The pioneers of the universi- 
sities, schools, and colleges have so found it. It was 
at last Dr. Fisher's reward and his joy. 



EFFORTS TO FOUND A THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL, 101 



CHAPTER VHL 

FIRST EFFORTS TO FOUND A THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL. 



First Educational Movements not Specific. — The Result a Devel- 
opment rather than a Creation. — T. J. Sawyer and H. Ballon, 
2d. — An Issue forced. — Sept. 3, 1845. — The Clinton Class. — 
The Substantial Success. — The Attention of the People secured. 
— Tufts College. — New York Convention of 1850. — Convention 
of 1852. — An Education Society. — Board of Trustees. — Heroic 
Record. — Success of the Education Society. 

r I ^ITE earlier agitations and schemes which at last 



- 1 - gave the Universalist denomination colleges and 
theological schools can hardly be said to have pursued 
any very definite plan, or to have aimed at any sharply 
specified end. The feeling that moved the leading men 
was generally that of the need of greater educational 
facilities in the work of the denomination. Some gave 
special thought to schools which, under Universalist 
auspices, should be safe for the children of Universalist 
parents. This thought included colleges and acade- 
mies. Others gave heed to the pressing exigency, — 
the need of systematic training for the ministry. Out 
of this ultimately came the existing theological schools. 
The "plans and specifications" were afterthoughts; 
they came as the development of the educational spirit 




102 MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 

made them needful. But at the outset there was no 
particular form of the educational enterprise ; and, 
while all worked together for institutions, the brethren 
began to divide (though not at first to differ) as to the 
specific character of the institution. I learn — indeed, 
I remember — that the necessity of a better-educated 
ministry was the dominant feeling and conviction ; 
and with the mass of the Universalist people better 
education meant better qualified ministers. In fact, 
the first formal action which resulted in founding Tufts 
College had at the time the intent of founding a theo- 
logical school. And years after Tufts was opened, it 
was difficult to disabuse the Universalist public mind as 
to the exclusive ness of its literary character. Very 
many of the laity supposed that it was a divinity school, 
and that all the }^oung men in it were there fitting for 
the ministry ! 

To use terms with what is defined as "scientific 
precision," I should say that the schools now under 
Universalist auspices were developments rather than 
creations. The initial idea, the root of purpose, was 
that of securing for the denomination the facilities and 
the power which come of the higher education. So 
much was clear and definite. The special forms which 
awaited that initial intent were discovered rather than 
anticipated. They came of contingencies and circum- 
stances rather than from a comprehensive purpose out- 
lined at the beginning. I must add that the process of 
this unfolding caused personal regrets, local preju- 



EFFORTS TO FOUND A THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL. 103 

dices, in some respects injudicious divisions, among 
the brethren. There were a New York movement and 
a New England movement, harmonious in the general 
interest, but not wholly in accord as the several en- 
terprises took a * c local " habitation and a specific 
" name." 

The Canton Theological School is the first that prop- 
erly has a title to the name under Universalist auspices. 
Yet, as I have but just stated, the need of some prepa- 
ration for the pulpit more regular and systematic than 
that of studjing with some minister had long been felt. 
As long ago as the year 1843, at the session of the 
General Convention of Universalists at Akron, Ohio, 
the Rev. Thomas J. Sawyer, in a sermon before that 
body, in sadness complained that so many had literally 
leaped from the blacksmith's forge into the pulpit. To 
be sincere, in earnest, strong in argument, and devoted 
to the cause, — primary and indispensable conditions 
indeed, — were of themselves most inadequate qualifi- 
cations for preaching the gospel. A practical man 
would not intrust the shoeing of his horse to one who 
had not learned the trade. In a strict yet high mean- 
ing of that word, should the preaching of the gospel 
and the discharging of pastoral duties be intrusted to 
one who has received no mental outfit for a skilful aud 
safe assuming of the sacred responsibility? The Rev. 
Hosea Ballou, 2d, of Medford, Mass., from whom sev- 
eral ministers had received such instructions as can be 
given at irregular hours in a pastor's study, felt the 



104 MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



necessity of a more thorough and systematic training 
not less keenly than his New York co-laborer. And a 
few laymen were in full sympathy with them as to the 
exigency. The feeling deepened in their minds till 
they felt that something at least approximating a school 
for training ministers must be attempted. What I will 
venture to designate as the initial act bears date 
Sept. 3, 1845. 

The pastor of the New York Orchard Street Church, 
wiiose sermon at Akron I have just referred to, became 
literally restless in view of the growing, ever- threaten- 
ing need, to meet which no active or formal steps were 
taken. He therefore determined upon action. He and 
his brethren had talked much ; now he would do some- 
thing. Literally he forced a crisis. With the approv- 
ing advice of influential brethren, and with at least the 
intimation that his hands should be upheld in what he 
proposed, he resigned his pastoral charge in New York, 
and this to the profound grief of a people who loved 
and cherished him as few pastors are ever loved and 
cherished. On the date named (Sept. 3, 1845), he 
took the Principalship of the Liberal Institute at Clin- 
ton, New York, founded largely through the instrumen- 
tality of the Rev. Stephen R. Smith, in 1832. His 
plan included that of a theological class, to which he 
would devote two hours of each school day. The salary 
for this special service was to be five hundred dollars a 
year, to secure which it was proposed to raise a perma- 
nent fund of ten thousand dollars. In the mean time 



EFFORTS TO FOUND A THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL. 105 

dependence was to be placed upon five-dollar subscrip- 
tions, and the contributions of the parishes. The ulti- 
mate intention was that Hosea Ballou, 2d, should be 
the head of a theological school, of which this class 
was to be the nucleus. This action of the New York 
pastor seemed like the self-forgetfulness and the courage 
of the forlorn hope. In leaving an assured position, 
— strong almost beyond precedent in the affections of a 
parish that was literally his own creation, — and a good 
and certain salary, for an experiment, and one which, 
even if successful, must bring special hardship and a 
scanty support, Dr. Sawyer gave an example of per- 
sonal sacrifice for a principle that has few parallels in 
his, in any, denomination. Gratefully I make the 
record in this humble endeavor justly to record the 
potential antecedents of the Canton School. I antici- 
pate to add that though the plan was not in form and 
name wholly successful, it was virtually and in effect 
very successful. It gave the Universalist ministry in 
all out of thirty- eight students, twenty-nine ministers, 
most of whom have proved faithful and efficient, not a 
small proportion being in active service in the Univer- 
salist ministry to this day. Yes, better ; it literally put 
the general enterprise before the eyes of the people ; it 
compelled them at least to take a position ; it led to 
what was not contemplated, the institution over which, 
in subsequent years, Ebenezer Fisher was to preside, 
with the results soon to be detailed. 
I have said that Dr. Sawyer's action forced an issue. 



106 



MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



This is literally the fact. TYhile he was engaged with 
the theological class, — a period of about seyen years, 
— conventions, associations, and special meetings were 
taking the matter up in form, — at first with but little 
immediate effect, then with encouraging results, finally 
with the prestige of assured success. Resolutions, com- 
mittees, and agencies followed the Clinton experiment, 
nominally and intentionally to sustain and improve it ; 
though, as I have before intimated, to bear fruit in 
other forms and in other communities. I much regret 
that my rapidly filling pages compel me to summarize 
in the briefest statement a large number of facts bearing 
upon the one enterprise which for a decade literally 
monopolized the attention of the Xew York Universal- 
ists, particularly in their ecclesiastical gatherings. 
Hardly any other matter was thought of or talked about. 
Committees were appointed, special meetings were held, 
stirring circulars were sent out, subscriptions were 
taken, — all with the same general intent. At the Xew 
York Convention of 1850, a committee on education 
reported in some detail, mainly in regard to the Clinton 
class, but incidentally in regard to the general project 
of education under the auspices of the denomination. 
At the session of 1851, Eev. E. Francis, for a com- 
mittee on the Theological School, reported progress, 
and the Clinton class was still the end immediately in 
view. This report was followed by the appointment of 
a committee of five, — Revs. E. Francis, G. W. Mont- 
gomery, J. M. Austin, E. Eddy, and Job Potter, — to 



EFFORTS TO FOUND A THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL. 107 

consider the whole matter of education, literary and 
theological, in the State. At the session of 1852, this 
committee reported progress, one item having reference 
to Dr. Sawyer's work at Clinton. But what, in view of 
the result, must now be rated as the principal feature, 
was the plan for an Education Society. This was sub- 
mitted to a special committee, — Mr. George E. Baker, 
Rev. J. C. Waldo, Rev. Pitt Morse. This committee 
acted promptly during a recess of the Convention, and 
the Education Society was organized, with the following 
as a Board of Trustees : T. J. Sawyer, Jacob Harsen, 
Martin Thatcher, E. Francis, Grove Penny, O. Hutch- 
inson, C. C. Gordon, C. L. Stickney, Philo Price, R. F. 
Clark, Marinus Hubbard, G. W. Montgomery, W. S. 
Balch, George E. Baker, J. M. Austin, Josiah Barber. 
I must, and most reluctantly, pass by the many votes 
and plans and acts of the new Society. It must suffice 
if I say that the determination with which obstacles 
were uniformly resisted was not simply commendable, 
it was heroic. It gave the proof that the cause was in 
the hands of a people who would " know no such word 
as fail." Disappointment, instead of disheartening, 
only stimulated to renewed endeavor. Success was 
merited : success was now to be the reward. 

That Education Society was in earnest. It was de- 
termined that something should be done. By almost 
direct action it established and equipped the school to 
which Ebenezer Fisher was called. 



108 



MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



CHAPTER IX. 



THE THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL ESTABLISHED. 

Feeling the Way. — The Question of Funds. — Rev. E. Francis ap- 
pointed to Canvass for Funds. — Rev. J. T. Goodrich also. — 
Education Meeting in New York. — Jacob Harsen's Pledge. — 
The Minimum Fund. — Convention of 1853. — Agent's Report. 
— Convention of 1854. — Success Assured. — An important 
Committee appointed. — Proposals and Conditions. — Canton 
fixed upon. — A Building Committee. — Advantages and Dis- 
advantages of the Location. — The Addition of a College Sug- 
gested. — Meets with Local Favor. — The Incorporation of St. 
Lawrence University. — Corporate Trustees. — Laying the Cor- 
ner-Stone. — State Endowment for the College. — The Building 
made over to the Trustees. 

T TXDER the auspices of the New York Convention, 



the whole enterprise of the Theological School 
was now in the hands of the Education Society, — di- 
rectly in those of its Board of Trustees. This Board 
met in New York in September, 1852. It took action 
in regard to Dr. Sawyer's Clinton Class, with what 
success has been disclosed in the fact that in that year 
that gentleman closed his work in Clinton. In all of 
the varied and successive attempts, there was a "feel- 
ing of the way," — an attempt to hit upon some method 
that should promise stable results. But there was con- 




THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL ESTABLISHED. 109 

centration and specific plan in one regard. At every 
meeting of the brethren, under whatever auspices, the 
primary condition of funds was kept in view. No 
reports were so vital in interest as those from the 
treasurer. 

The Society, with the least possible delay (inevita- 
bly there was some delay) , put financial agents in the 
field. The Rev. Richard Eddy had been so active and 
so effective in his clerical service, that he was at once 
designated for the important trust of securing subscrip- 
tions. But his parish engagements made it impossible 
for him to accept. The Rev. E. Francis was induced 
to resign his pastorate in Utica, in April, 1853, and 
start out with the subscription-book. He was the pio- 
neer canvasser, under the direction of the Education 
Society. He at once began the never very pleasant 
enterprise. The u Ambassador " (the State denomi- 
national paper), Dr. Sawyer, and others, gave him a 
public indorsement, and entreated the Universalist peo- 
ple throughout the State, and wherever else he might 
go, to give him a cordial greeting. He was 6 4 to raise 
means to found and endow a respectable theological 
seminary," and " also obtain members, annual and life, 
of the Society." Dr. Sawyer said : " An earnest effort 
is to be made to accomplish what has been too long 
neglected, — the establishment of a respectable theo- 
logical school. With what success our endeavors are 
to be attended, time alone can determine. God grant 
that our highest hopes may be realized." 



110 



MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



Early in January, 1854, the trustees appointed the 
Rev. J. T. Goodrich a canvassing agent, who served in 
that capacity at different times for quite a long period, 
and who met, it is but just to record, with special suc- 
cess. In June, 1853, a public meeting was held in New 
York, in the Broadway (Dr. Chapin's) Church, to co- 
operate with and further the work of the Education Soci- 
ety. At this meeting, held so soon after the Convention 
at Hudson, and before the Education Society had been 
able to do much more than " look around," the announce- 
ment that at least a good beginning had been made 
towards the fund gave encouragement. The total sum, 
though small, seemed actually large in its promise, and 
it gave no little zest to the meeting. This, it must be 
remembered, was before there had been any training in 
the art of giving. At this meeting, Dr. Sawyer had the 
pleasure of announcing that the will of Mrs. Magdalen 
Hitter Halsted, of New York, bequeathed to the pur- 
poses of the Education Society one thousand dollars. 
Rev. W. S. Balch, F. C. Havemeyer, and Jacob Har- 
sen, were made a Committee of Finance for investing 
and holding such funds as might be raised. Resolu- 
tions directly bearing on the enterprise were discussed 
and adopted. Over two thousand one hundred dollars 
were pledged by individuals present. One gentleman 
(Jacob Harsen, of the Bleecker Street Church, New 
York) gave a pledge of five thousand dollars on the 
condition that twenty-five thousand dollars were raised 
from other parties, — which pledge he subsequently 



THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL ESTABLISHED. Ill 

changed to that of one thousand dollars for every five 
thousand dollars from other parties. His pastor at the 
time, Rev. W. S. Balch, writes me that this offer was 
really the incipient stage of the whole enterprise. It 
made the school possible ; and this, under the circum- 
stances, was equivalent to a certainty. Dr. Sawyer, 
who was appointed a committee to prepare a report in 
relation to the Theological School, at this meeting, per- 
formed the duty assigned. He published it in the 
"Christian Ambassador " for June 18, 1853, in which 
he considered at length, first, the " necessity," and, 
second, the practicability, of the enterprise. 

The Convention was held at Lockport, in August, 
1853. The Education Society held its first annual 
meeting on Wednesday afternoon, Aug. 24, when the 
secretary, Hon. George E. Baker, read his annual re- 
port ; and the treasurer and travelling agent, Rev. Mr. 
Francis, gave a report on the state of the finances and 
his success in soliciting. Speeches were made by 
Revs. W. S. Balch, H. R. Nye, and J. M. Austin. 
Six hundred dollars were at once pledged. The agent, 
Rev. Mr. Francis, stated that he had been as success- 
ful as was anticipated ; that in most of the places he 
had visited the friends were not prepared to subscribe, 
since they had not made it a thing of deliberate con- 
sideration. They had never before been appealed to 
personally. Again, in many instances they preferred 
to wait till another season of the year : summer was the 
time when they were the least able to contribute. 



112 MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



At the session of the Convention held in Auburn, in 
1854, it appeared that sixteen thousand dollars had 
been pledged. At a special meeting held in New York, 
Nov. 28, the same year, the amount had nominally 
— the result proved that it was not fully — reached 
twenty thousand dollars. 

But success was an assured fact, and hence a most 
important committee was appointed, consisting of Rev. 
W. S. Balch, F. C. Havemeyer, and Norman Van Nos- 
trancl, to take charge of the whole enterprise, devise 
wa t ys and means, and locate the Theological School. 
They issued proposals on the condition that, " other 
things being equal, that place which would do the most 
for the institution should receive the preference." Ap- 
plications were made from Canton, Perry, Clinton, 
Cazenovia, Cortlandville, Newark, and some other 
towns. They raised what they could, and laid the 
result before the committee, who took the pains to 
visit and examine most of the places personally. The 
4 c conditions " which they took into consideration were 
accessibility, healthiness, and the state of the cause in 
the town and regions round about. Two offered strong 
inducements, — Perry and Canton. The committee 
determined to allow no prejudice of place or people to 
influence their judgment. Perry offered twenty acres of 
land and seven thousand dollars, with the prospect of in- 
creasing it to ten thousand dollars. Canton offered twenty 
acres of land and fifteen thousand dollars, which was 
afterwards increased to twenty-one thousand dollars. 



THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL ESTABLISHED. 113 

At the annual meeting of the Education Society, 
Aug. 29, 1855, at Utica, this committee made a report, 
and the trustees were authorized to make the selection. 
They conferred their power upon the same committee, 
who finally announced, Jan. 5, 1856, that they had 
decided upon Canton as the location of the school, 
since it had offered the best inducements. Rev. W. S. 
Balch, Norman Van Nostrand, and Thomas Wallace, 
were appointed a committee to erect the building. 

It will be noted that all the action taken by the Edu- 
cation Society pertained exclusively to the Theological 
School. It has been stated that the votes passed at the 
meeting in New York, originating the movement that 
sent out Rev. O. A. Skinner to canvass for the estab- 
lishing of a college, contemplated the location of the 
college in the valley of the Mohawk or Hudson ; and 
the Theological School, to be at Walnut Hill (now Col- 
lege Hill), near Boston. When it was determined to 
put the college at the latter place, many of the New 
York people, disappointed in the turn the enterprise 
took, felt that it should be their special province to seek 
the establishing of the Theological School in their own 
State. The Education Society made this enterprise 
its special object, with what success has now been 
described. 

The Rev. William S. Balch writes me to the same 
effect, adding a new item : " The people of Canton and 
vicinity had donated twenty acres of land and fifteen 
thousand dollars for the erection of a suitable building. 

8 



114 



MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



It was designed, and a portion of the original fund was 
given, on condition that manual labor of two hours each 
working-day should form a part of its curriculum." 

As to the fitness of the site, there were two sides. 
Canton is not in what can properly be called a Univer- 
salis! neighborhood. It was remote from the strong par- 
ishes whose sympathy and interest it was quite essential 
should be quickened. It was literally * ; out of sight : " 
the rest of the adage might be expected to hold true. 
In the two particulars of endowment and of the sym- 
pathy of the brethren at large, the centre of Xew York 
city had been much better than Canton, on the far-off 
and isolated border. But the other side is also strong : 
as I reflect and recall some memories. I incline to the 
belief that it was the stronger. Canton was and is away 
from the city temptations so serious to young men. It 
was away from diversions. There was nothing to com- 
pete with the studies and the discipline of the school. 
It is almost impossible to over-estimate the worth of 
this single consideration. And the means of living 
were and are relatively cheap. In striking the average 
of argument, I am not sure but that Canton had pre- 
eminent claims as the best site for the enterprise. 

It must not be inferred that Canton was or is an 
obscure country village. It is the county seat of St. 
Lawrence county. It is a compact town, with a court 
house, a large hotel, and a business street crowded with 
stores. In the near vicinity, there are several mills and 
factories. The " Gazetteer " sets the population of the 



THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL ESTABLISHED. 115 

town, for 1854, as fifteen hundred ; of the township as 
about forty-five hundred. Hence there is ample " so- 
ciet} T ," and all the conveniences of town life. Still, it 
is not a city, either in size or character. It is not near 
a city, Ogdensburg, some twent}^ miles distant, being 
the nearest, at least of much size. 

I have explained that the prospect of a college was 
not even entertained by the New York brethren ; that 
all the plans, propositions, and funds raised and con- 
templated had exclusive reference to the seminary for 
the educating of young men for the ministry. 

As another example of the development character 
of the general enterprise, it is to be stated that, as 
soon as the institution was in certain prospect, the 
idea of a college was revived, and as an accompaniment 
of the divinity school. There was no institution of the 
college grade north of Clinton and Schenectady. There 
seemed to be an opportunity to supply, for the very 
large section of the State, the facilities for college cul- 
ture. L. B. Storrs, of Canton, was the first to offer the 
suggestion. It was seconded most earnestly by Hon. 
John L. Russell, one of the trustees, and a member of 
the Presbyterian parish. Members of all the denomi- 
nations subscribed for the college, and thus greatly in- 
creased the subscriptions. A bill was introduced into the 
Legislature, in the winter of 1856, to incorporate " St. 
Lawrence University," with power to establish a college 
and a theological school, the funds of each to be kept 
separate, while both were to be under the same board 



116 



MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



of trustees. This act passed and became a law April 
3, 1856. The names of the corporate trustees were 
Jacob Harsen, of New York ; Preston King, of Og- 
densburg ; Sydney Lawrence, George C. Sherman, of 
Watertown ; John L. Russell, of Canton ; Francis Se- 
ger, Martin Thatcher, of Canton ; Barsillai Hodskin, 
of Canton ; Levi B. Storrs, of Canton ; Theodore Cald- 
well, of Canton ; James Sterling, of Sterlingville ; F. C. 
Havemeyer, of New York ; Caleb Barstow, of Brook- 
lyn ; Thomas "Wallace, Josiah Barber, of Auburn ; A. C. 
Moore, of Buffalo ; P. H. Bitley, of Branchport ; H. W. 
Barton, George E. Baker, of Albany ; Norman Van 
Nostrand, of Brooklyn ; Thomas J. Sawyer, of New 
York; William S. Balch, of New York; John M. 
Austin, of Auburn ; L. C. Browne, of Hudson ; George 
W. Montgomery, of Rochester. 

The corner-stone of the building was laid in Canton, 
with appropriate ceremonies, June 18, 1856, at 9 a.m. 
Prayer was offered by Rev. Day K. Lee. An original 
ode by Mrs. C. M. Sawyer, followed. Then came an 
address, and the placing the stone in position, by Rev. 
W. S. Balch. An address by Rev. Dr. T. J. Sawyer 
followed ; then an original ode by Rev. Day K. Lee. 
The concluding address was by Rev. Dr. E. H. Chapin. 

It was a pleasant day. A great crowd of the donors 
and friends of the institution gathered, and great 
rejoicing was made. 

The first meeting of the trustees was held at Canton, 
Nov. 13, 1856, when Rev. Dr. T. J. Sawyer was 



THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL ESTABLISHED. 117 

elected President of the Board ; Barsillai Hodskin, 
Treasurer ; and L. B. Storrs, Secretary, — who still 
holds the office, and also that of Treasurer. The char- 
ter was accepted, and other important business was 
transacted at this meeting, for the interests of the uni- 
versity. In regard to the college, the idea of a literary 
department did not, as I have been careful to impress, 
enter into the minds of the original projectors of the 
Theological School, but, as we have just seen, was sug- 
gested by the people in Canton. After the act of in- 
corporation by the New York Legislature, making it in 
name a " university " instead of a " theological semi- 
nary," and subscriptions to some extent were secured, 
it was thought best to make an effort to obtain a fund 
from the State ; so the Legislature of 1857 was pe- 
titioned in that behalf. At first much opposition was 
made. It was urged that the State had colleges enough 
already, and that the Universalists had no claim. Hon. 
Benjamin Squire, of Canton, who was a member, though 
a Methodist, urged the measure persistently. The 
measure was carried. April 9, 1857, an act was passed 
appropriating twenty-five thousand dollars to the uni- 
versity, for advancing general education, on con- 
dition that an equal amount be raised by private 
subscription. The condition was complied with and 
the appropriation secured. This laid the foundation 
for the College of Letters and Science which is now 
in active operation. 

In August, 1857, it was announced that the building 



118 MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FiSHER. 

was completed. It was in due form delivered over by 
the Building Committee to the trustees, by deed. 

I go back a little in this narrative to say that the 
turn which had been taken, not in modifying the original 
plan but in adding to it, was not indeed an unwelcome 
surprise, yet a surprise. The Eev. Mr. Balch gives 
me a curious account of the new movement, informing 
me that with the establishment of the university he had 
no direct active connection ; that his committee had 
no authority except in the establishment of the Theo- 
logical School. He adds: " The first notice I had of 
any serious movement was seeing a flaming notice 
posted at Madrid, on our arrival there, to the la}ing of 
the corner-stone of the 6 St. Lawrence University.' I 
was astonished. The committee had worked the sub- 
scriptions, by the direction of the Convention, for a 
theological school. I took occasion to so state in lay- 
ing the corner-stone, and in a box under it that name 
was placed." 

As I have said, and as Mr. Balch is particular 
to say, the two institutions were literally two ; and 
not a penny of the offerings for the one was diverted 
from the specific object named when it was solicited. 
But practically they were in very close relations. 
Each helped the other. If sickness or absence reduced 
the faculty in the one, help for the contingency 
came from the other. Formally and officially, Dr. 
Fisher never had any connection with the college ; 
yet so sincere and friendly were the relations between 



THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL ESTABLISHED. 119 



the schools that a complete sketch of his work must 
include, at least in the general details, some history of 
what was really an afterthought, and which, with the 
Theological School, became by legal title the St. Law- 
rence University. 



120 MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



CHAPTER X. 



THE CALL TO CANTON. 



Drs. Ballon and Sawyer. — Mr. Fisher not generally Known. — 
Becommended by Dr. Ballon and Bev. D. K. Lee. — Ebenezer 
Fisher appointed President. — The Inauguration. — The School 
a Fact. — Ebenezer Fisher its Head for Twenty-one Years. — 
Unpropitious Omens. — The Weather. — Four Students. — Re- 
collections of Bey. M. B. Leonard. — Demand and Supply. — 
The Library. — Mr. S. C. Herring's Gift. — Lack of Text-books. 
— Inventions. 



k HE very important question was now forced upon 



the trustees : " To whom shall the school be in- 
trusted ? Who shall be the teacher and the responsible 
head?" There were two men who would have made 
the formal putting of the question superfluous, had 
either been available. The Rev. Hosea Ballou, 2d, 
D.D., — the title was conferred by Harvard College, 
and he was the first of modern Universalis ts who 
received it, — was by pre-eminence the scholar, thinker, 
writer, and wise man of the denomination. With him 
no one thought of coming into competition. He was 
the Saul of the Universalist Israel, — loved, honored, 
and revered. I have sometimes thought — and in the 
thought I represent my brethren — that in Dr. Ballou 
there was embodied more of the spirit of the Master 




CALL TO CANTON, 



121 



than in any other man I have known. Had he been 
available, and had the selection been put to a popular 
vote of the Universalist people, and this without the 
formal suggestion of a name, I doubt not that a unani- 
mous decision would have selected that man as the 
44 natural candidate." And it was an office himself 
would have chosen above all others. But he had been 
placed in the presidency of Tufts College, where his 
wise administration and profound Christian influence 
were fast bringing the young institution into a prominent 
and a proud position. Having assumed that responsi- 
bilit}^, he felt that he had no right to desert it. He was 
therefore not to be thought of in connection with the 
New York enterprise. 

The second man was the Rev. Thomas J. Sawyer, 
D.D., — the second of Universalists to receive the 
honorary title, and this was conferred by Harvard. 
Dr. Ballou aside, no man would have been thought 
of as Dr. Sawyer's competitor. He also was felt 
to be, and he actually was, a 44 natural candidate." 
He, however, — perhaps having sorrowful memories 
of the Clinton experiment, — felt it his duty to 
resist all entreaty. He was formally tendered the 
office, but he declined. He therefore was no longer 
to be thought of in selecting the head of the new 
schooL 

The question then became formal as well as real, and 
a very anxious and perplexing one : 4 4 Who is to have 
the charge of the Theological School?" 



122 



MEMOIR OF EBEXEZER FISHER. 



At this date. Ebenezer Fisher, pastor of the parish 
in quiet and unpretending South Dedham, was not 
known to fame. Except as some glimmer from the 
special luminary of the "Essex Ministerial Circle" 
might have reached remote and distant corners, Mr. 
Fisher was but little known to the Universalist public 
outside of the clerical circle of Massachusetts. Dr. 
Ballou had seen him once in the " Circle," had heard 
mam' reports from it. had marked him as he spoke in 
the Boston Association and in the Massachusetts Con- 
vention, and had been associated with him on the Board 
of Home Missions. That was enough for that appre- 
ciative understanding : he knew Ebenezer Fisher. The 
Rev. Day K. Lee had been pastor of a second Univer- 
salist parish in Salem, contemporary with a part of 
Mr. Fisher's pastorate in the old parish. He was there 
brought into close and sympathetic reciprocal relations 
with Mr. Fisher. He therefore knew him and ade- 
quately appreciated him. I presume that in 1857 Mr. 
Lee, then settled in Ogdensburg, was the only man in 
the State of New York who thoroughly knew the then 
South Dedham pastor. Strange to say (strange ! — on 
the contrary, it was not at all strange), that Dr. Ballou 
(in an interview with Rev. Mr. Balch) and Mr. Lee, 
neither having the remotest thought as to the impression 
on the mind of the other, almost simultaneously and 
with equal positiveness said: -'The man to be placed 
at the head of the Theological School is Ebenezer Fisher, 
of South Dedham, Massachusetts." The trustees heeded 



CALL TO CANTON. 



123 



the suggestion. The Rev. Richard Eddy, at that time 
pastor of the Universalist Church at Canton, was au- 
thorized to open a correspondence with Mr. Fisher. 
He wrote to him under date Jan. 25, 1858. The call 
was accepted Feb. 13. 

Mr. Fisher had been in no haste, had shown no eager 
desire, in reference to the position. He knew too much 
of the world to expect that the duties of a position so 
novel, in which there were no precedents to guide, could 
be otherwise than most exacting. He could but feel 
that he was honored, for the position was one of great 
responsibility, and he was never indifferent to the good 
opinion of his brethren. As I have before said, the 
call came to him in such a form and under such circum- 
stances that it appeared to him a command. And any 
command that had the approval of his Master, he could 
not discuss. Under date South Dedham, Oct. 15, 1857, 
he writes to a Salem friend : " I do not as yet hear any 
thing directly from the St. Lawrence University in 
regard to the proposed professorship ; but indirectly I 
learn that they are counting on me for the place. I shall, 
however, remain quiet until I hear something from them, 
and then take my measures accordingly. I have every 
reason to be satisfied here, unless the appearance of 
things changes ; and I shall not make a move without 
good reasons." When the word came to him " di- 
rectly " and in official form, the reasons seemed good ; 
and with no little anxiety, yet in the belief that he was 
in the way of duty, he accepted the responsible office. 



124 



MEMOIR OF EBENEZER. FISHER. 



The ceremony of inauguration followed, April 15, 
1858. Rev. Pitt Morse offered the prayer of consecra- 
tion ; Rev. T. J. Sawyer, D.D., gave the address ; and 
the incumbent, who was now distinguished as Professor 
Fisher, gave an inaugural address. And now, how- 
ever defective the preparation, however uncertain the 
prospects, however to be looked upon as the day of 
small things, the result long looked for, toiled for, 
prayed for, has come. The Universalists have a theo- 
logical school. Ebenezer Fisher is its responsible head. 
He is about to begin what was to be by pre-eminence 
his life work. He began April 18, 1858. He did not 
leave the great enterprise till death relieved him, Feb. 
21, 1879. 

With the inauguration of the principal, the work 
of the Canton Theological School formally begins. It 
cannot be said that the omens of inauguration da}' were 
of a nature to give hope and cheer to any of the par- 
ticipants. I have often heard Dr. Fisher tell with what 
forced resolution he met the new and strange ordeal. 
The Rev. Mr. Goodrich notes that 4 -the day was 
gloom}' ; a wet snow fell continuously, and the streets 
of Canton were full of mud ; " that " if the weather was 
adverse on the day of beginning, other circumstances 
were also unpromising ; " that the building iC was almost 
literally empty," its furniture i; a few seats, its only 
library a few books which teacher and pupils carried in 
their hands." The first class, soon after the opening, 
included four. They are all actively engaged in the 



CALL TO CANTON. 



125 



work of the ministry at this date, — Rev. A. J. Can- 
field, of Chelsea, Mass., Rev. M. R. Leonard, of Wal- 
tham, Mass., Rev. J. M. Pullman, D.D., of New York, 
and Rev. B. L. Bennett, of Chatham, Mass. This, 
however, describes the class as it began. It will be 
somewhat different, as I shall show, when it graduates. 
The mere recital of the opening of the school gives a 
picture any thing but pleasing. We can well under- 
stand that it. required the full vigor of faith, and some 
of the illusions of hope, to keep the courage firm and 
the resolution unbroken to bear up under the strange 
trial. 

But if this is true of the teacher, of the years and the 
experience which temper expectation and prepare for 
disappointment, how must it have been with the young 
man, to whom the very word u institution " is suggestive 
of great things in hand rather than in prospect? In 
truth, Professor Fisher, besides struggling to keep him- 
self in Canton, had the much more difficult task of 
holding what few students he had, — so painful to them 
was the contrast between what they anticipated and 
what they found. Reflecting that a statement of one 
who suffered from the ordeal must be specially authentic, 
I have persuaded the Rev. M. R. Leonard, one of the 
first four students, to note for my use his recollections 
of Canton, — both of the inauguration day and of the 
first years in the history of the school. I give his 
graphic recital entire. He says : — 



126 



MEMOIR OF EB EXE ZER FISHER. 



"Well do I remember the day on which Dr. Fisher — he 
was not a doctor then, however — was inaugurated President 
of the Canton Theological School. It was about the middle 
of April, 1558, and the weather and roads were exceptionally 
bad. even for northern New York. I remember those things 
distinctly, because I travelled on foot, eight miles or more, to 
attend the inaugurating exercises. 

" I had for several years — indeed, I may say from boyhood 
— cherished the desire of becoming a Universalist minister, 
and it was with no little satisfaction that I learned that the new 
theological school established by the Universalist denomination 
was to be located so near my home. My ideas of the glory and 
power of the Universalist church were then much greater than 
they are now ; and I expected to find, when I reached Canton, 
a small crowd of young men, anxious to prepare themselves 
for the proclamation of the truth I had so long loved. I need 
hardly say that my expectations were sorely disappointed. On 
reaching the old Universalist church, where the exercises were 
to be held. I found that the crowd I had expected consisted of 
just three young men. 

u The exercises of the day, as I recall them, consisted of 
addresses by Drs. Sawyer and Fisher. One passage in Dr. 
Sawyer's address I well remember, in which he expressed the 
hope that he who was that day installed over Canton Theo- 
logical School might be permitted to remain there till a suf- 
ficient number of young men should pass under his instruction 
to exert a marked influence on the Universalist denomination. 
However unpromising the occasion may have seemed, his hope 
was realized. When Dr. Fisher rested from his labors, more 
than one hundred of the pulpits of our Church — and some of 
them among the most prominent — were occupied by those 
who had enjoyed the rare privilege of his counsel and instruc- 
tion. 

" Of Dr. Fisher's inaugural address I remember little or 
nothing ; but my impression of his personal appearance is as 



CALL TO CANTON. 



127 



vivid now as on that day. He was then about forty-four years 
of age ; he seemed, however, to be much older. I think he 
looked fully as old on that day as during the last days of his 
life. For some years before going to Canton, he had been in 
poor health ; and when I first saw him his face had a careworn 
expression, and withal something of sternness. The very first 
sight of him assured me that he was a man of dignity, high 
moral tone, and great intellectual power ; but whether I should 
be drawn to him personally or not seemed somewhat doubtful. 
It took but a brief time, however, to banish all such fear from 
my mind, and I ever found him most genial and approachable. 
Severe he may sometimes have been on sham and hypocrisy ; 
but I am sure no earnest, well-meaning student ever found 
him any other than a kind, encouraging, sympathizing friend. 
Indeed, I think that most of his students regarded him rather 
as a father than otherwise. 

" The first term at Canton was not very promising or in- 
spiring. There was Dr. — or, as we called him, Professor — 
Fisher ; there were the four students, and a plain and rather 
inconvenient building, with neither library nor furniture of 
any kind. We literally had no books at our command save 
the text-books required for daily use. Before the close of the 
term, however, I think the first instalment of the Herring 
Library arrived. It consisted of the library of Dr. Credner, 
of Germany. There were several thousand volumes in the 
collection, but as they were nearly all in a language which 
neither students nor professor knew any thing about, the benefit 
we derived from them was not very great. Before the close of 
the first year, however, we had a sufficiency of books, both in 
number and variety to answer our needs very well. 

H The opening of the second term brought several new stu- 
dents. They were merged in our class, and we all, or at least 
all who remained till the end of the third year, graduated 
together. 

" Dr. Fisher's personal influence was about the only bond 



128 



MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



which held us at Canton during the first year. I recall an in- 
cident . strongly illustrative of this statement : — 

"At the opening of • the second term, a young man came 
from the Me-adville Divinity SchooL He was an earnest Uni- 
versalist, and wished to patronize our own school. We saw 
very soon that he was terribly disappointed. The contrast be- 
tween Meadville and Canton, in point of equipment, was so 
great that before he had become really acquainted with Dr. 
Fisher, and unknown to him. he resolved to leave. He ac- 
cordingly packed up and departed. On the train the doctor 
happened to meet him, and, learning where he was going, 
brought the power of his persuasion to bear upon him. The 
result was the young man returned, and remained through the 
full course, one of the most devoted students Canton ever had. 
He was the first, also, among her graduates to lay down his 
earthly work and enter upon the higher life." 

The law of Political Economy held true in regard to 
the institution. — the want brought the supply, — it in- 
cited to the efforts which secured the needful conven- 
iences. Books, periodicals, furniture, slowly, yet surely 
came. But the process was slow ; and for a long period 
the buildings and the implements were crude, inade- 
quate, and uninviting. 

In the vital matter of a library, S. C. Herring, Esq., of 
Xew York, — formerly a parishioner of the Rev. Mr. 
Balch, in the Bleecker Street Universalist Church, — 
proved indeed a friend to the institution. He gave a 
thousand dollars specially for that purpose, paid for 
what is known as the Credner Library, which Mr. Leon- 
ard has described. Mr, Herring, as I shall not forget 
to note in detail, made other gifts in later years. In a 



CALL TO CANTON. 



129 



brief address at an Education Meeting m New York, 
he made a humorous allusion to his own business, and 
added that the library ought to be put into a ' £ safe ! " 
At this date the Theological School has not only a val- 
uable library, but a most elegant library building, cost- 
ing not far from nine thousand dollars. 

At the outset, Professor Fisher could find no treatise 
at all adapted to the needs of a Universalist Institution. 
The necessity that is the mother of invention served 
him. He composed and had copied his own text-books. 
I go forward several years to note one particular, which 
showed not only inventiveness, but considerate delicacy. 
He mailed to the editor of the 4 ' Christian Leader " — 
the State denominational paper — a theological article 
which had appeared in a particular periodical, and, ask- 
ing him to read it carefully, added, "Then write me 
just what you think of it." The editor answered that 
the article seemed to him surcharged with thought 
tersely stated ; that it was sound in philosophy and 
faultless in arrangement ; and that, though rather tough 
for the popular reader, he should certainly reprint it in 
the " Christian Leader." Dr. Fisher then wrote the ed- 
itor : "If you should carry out your intention and re- 
print that article, send me by express two hundred 
copies, for I want it to make into a text-book ! " He 
had delicately refrained from intimating his ulterior ob- 
ject in sending the article to the editor, for he did not 
wish to exert an undue influence. The next time he 
saw his editorial brother, he said to him with a hearty 

9 



130 MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 

laugh : u You see I got a text-book out of you." Such 
were the devices of the President of the First Universal- 
ist Theological School. Who will say that he was not 
its creator as well as instructor ? 



i 



DARK DAYS. 



131 



CHAPTER XI. 



DARK DAYS. 



A second Professor needed. — Incidental Help from the College. — 
A Regular Assistant indispensable. — Heart mnst be in the 
"Work. — Rev. Massena Goodrich consulted. — Elected Profes- 
sor of Biblical Language and Literature. — His Statement of 
the Conditions. — Reasons for his Resigning. — Dr. Fisher's 
Relief from a Dilemma. — An Explanation that is not Justifica- 
tion. — Anxiety for Tufts College overshadowing. — Dr. Fisher's 
earnest Appeal to the General Convention. — Temporary Relief. 
— A Letter to his Mother. — Incidental Revelation. 

f I ^IIE difficulties described in the preceding chapter, 



though real, were mainly those that prey upon the 
spirit and give painful "imaginings." Yet they were 
such as time, familiarity, and constant attention to the 
work in hand, might naturally overcome. 

During the first year, Professor Fisher succeeded very 
well. But when the second class entered in April, 1859, 
he found that an assistant was indispensable. There were 
not funds enough to pay the salary of another professor, 
though it was intended by the trustees from the begin- 
ning to secure a second one so soon as means could be 
raised for his support. It was in this contingency that 
the College was of temporary and incidental help to the 
Theological School. 




132 



MEMOIR OF EBEXEZER FISHER. 



I must now go back a little in this history. March 
31, 1858, Key. J. S. Lee, Principal of the "Green 
Mountain Institute," South "Woodstock, Vermont, was 
elected Professor of Ancient Languages in the St. Law- 
rence University. In the following August, he was re- 
quested to open the Preparatory School, in April, 1859. 
He accepted the invitation, moved to Canton, and, 
April 13, 1859, he commenced the first term of the 
collegiate department, and taught the Greek language in 
the theological department. Professor Fisher also ad- 
mitted students of the collegiate department into his 
classes in logic, rhetoric, and philosophy. This ar- 
rangement continued for a little more than a year. 

It was soon evident that Professor Fisher must have 
a regular and constant assistant. He could not do the 
work alone, nor yet with occasional help. It was not 
in his nature to slight any thing to which he put his 
hands. The pressure was twofold, — to get a second 
professor, and to get the means of his support. Of 
course the second phase of the enterprise was the se- 
rious one, and that which in the attempt brought Pro- 
fessor Fisher great labor, painful anxiety, and sleepless 
nights, while his heart was chilled in his inability to 
awaken his brethren to a sense of their responsibilities 
in coming to the support of an undertaking which them- 
selves had begun. Yet to find the "right man/' and 
one that could be secured on the support which at the 
best must be very meagre, was by no means an easy 
undertaking. 



DARK DATS. 



133 



I well remember a conversation I had with Professor 
Fisher in May, 1859. It was during Anniversary Week 
in Boston. In the store of Abel Tompkins, where I un- 
expectedly met him, he promptly said to me that he was 
not in Boston to attend the Anniversary meetings. He 
had come to consult with the brethren, and to seek coun- 
sel and assistance in regard to what he deemed had 
become so imperative a need, that the success of the 
school was in peril. "I cannot do the work as it 
ought to be clone," said he, " unless I have a competent 
assistant. Now who and where is the man?" 

I had recently made the acquaintance of a man who 
was deemed an expert in the Hebrew and the Greek, — 
and such an one was needed, — and I gave him the 
name, adding, " He is a man of good character, but 
not particularly interested in church matters, nor has 
he any thing more than a sympathy with the denomi- 
nation." Professor Fisher answered with the accent 
that I felt to be final: u No, my business is to make 
Christian ministers, and no one can be of substantial 
aid in that work, who does not put his whole heart into 
it." He then added, but with a caution not to repeat 
his words, for the time had not come for much publicity : 
u Massena Goodrich is the man, only I cannot approach 
him until I have some reasonable assurance that a sal- 
ary can be pledged." 

In the course of the summer, by personal interviews 
and correspondence, he got what to him had the char- 
acter of promises, in a degree that seemed to him to 



134 MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



warrant a suggestion, though not a formal proposition, 
which was made to Rev. Mr. Goodrich, of Pawtucket, 
R. I., in September of the same }-ear. The sugges- 
tion was for the twofold purpose of ascertaining if 
a proposition might be entertained, and, if so, to give 
Mr. Goodrich a little time for reviving and burnish- 
ing up the scholarship which it was well known he 
had acquired. The suggestion had the desired effect. 
In the fall of 1860, Mr. Goodrich was induced to make 
the trial, with issues, however, which neither he nor 
Professor Fisher foresaw. He was elected Professor of 
Biblical Languages and Literature. 

The " issues," which came as a surprise and a sor- 
row, justify the title to this chapter. The almost utter 
failure of what Professor Fisher had with good reason 
regarded as financial pledges for the support of the sec- 
ond professorship, sorely disappointed him, and caused 
him constant anxiety and bitter humiliation. The pe- 
riod of suspense makes what he ever remembered, and 
what Mr. Goodrich continues to remember, as by pre- 
eminence the 4 4 Dark Daj^s " in this Canton history. 

In giving the details, it will be seen that no one could 
serve me so well as the surviving member of the party 
which for two years worked with feeble hopes, at times 
against hope. I have solicited of Mr. Goodrich a de- 
tailed statement of the difficulties with which he was so 
directly related, expressing a hope that no personal con- 
siderations would tempt him to omit any essential par- 
ticular. In his answer, the spirit, even more than the let- 



DARK DAYS. 



135 



ter, of his statement reveals the sorrow of that memory. 
He also gives interesting particulars of his previous 
acquaintance with the man with whom he was profes- 
sionally connected at Canton for two years. From 
Pawtucket under date, Oct. 28, 1879, he writes me : — 

" I received your letter about a fortnight ago, asking me to 
give my reminiscences of Brother Fisher in connection with the 
Canton Theological School. As you suggest that those were 
dark days for the school when I was associated with Professor 
Fisher, arid mention that you wish for such facts as I may deem 
relevant, I am constrained to mention one or two of a personal 
character, with which I would not otherwise trouble you. 
They serve to bring out more distinctly some of the sterling 
traits of Professor Fisher's character, and are therefore worthy 
of being mentioned. 

" I became acquainted with Professor Fisher in 1847, and at 
times was somewhat intimately associated with him. Enter- 
taining views similar to his on the subjects of slavery and tem- 
perance, and concurring with him in convictions as to the need 
of more energetic missionary efforts in our denomination, I fre- 
quently seconded his exertions in our sectarian and reform 
gatherings. Of course contact with him deepened my con- 
viction of his mental ability and personal consecration, and I 
gladly learned that he was called to take the charge of our sole 
Theological School in 1858. At that time I had no dream of 
ever being associated with him in such a school, but prayed for 
his success in his new work. In 1859, however, I attended the 
Universalist General Convention of our denomination at Koch- 
ester, N. Y., and met Professor Fisher ; and in the course of 
conversation with him, he put the question to me, whether I 
felt competent to undertake to teach the students of the school 
in Hebrew and Greek. My reply was, that for fifteen years or 
more I had been giving attention to those languages, but not 



136 



MEMOIR OF EBEXEZER FISHER. 



with reference to teaching them to others. My study had been 
specially to help myself in my work as a preacher and exposi- 
tor. I frankly told him, in addition, that I had been paying 
less attention to Hebrew for a few years ; but that, if he wished, 
I would for the coming year give special care to that branch of 
study, so that he might have more clergymen to select from, 
when he should feel the necessity of calling somebody to help 
him in his work. He had told me, indeed, that a second class 
had entered the school, and that, though for the coming year, 
in view of the small endowment of the institution, he should 
try to get along alone, the coming of a new class a year thence 
would compel him to ask for help. We accordingly parted 
with the understanding that I would give special attention to 
the Hebrew language for the coming year, but that I should 
neither feel that he was bound to ask me to come as an assist- 
ant professor to Canton, nor should he feel that I was obligated 
to come. 4 Sufficient to the clay its own evil.' 

" A year sped. As I felt that I was doing no injustice to my 
parish by increasing my knowledge of the venerable language 
wherein God spake of old to His chosen people through the 
prophets, I studied that old dialect more carefully. In July, 
1860, however, I received a letter from Professor Fisher, telling 
me that the trustees of St. Lawrence University had appointed 
me a professor in the Theological School. In a few days formal 
notice to that effect came from the Secretary. The salary prof- 
fered was comparatively small, but I could live on it with 
economy, provided it were paid. But 1 was warned by the 
experience of older men who had undertaken to serve the de- 
nomination, but who had not found every promise fulfilled. 
I therefore corresponded with Professor Fisher on the point, 
and found that but a small part of the endowment for the pro- 
fessorship whereto I was invited was raised. An agent how- 
ever was in the field, and Professor Fisher would do his best 
to see that my salary was promptly paid. But the prospect 
was not enticing. I thought that, if the denomination wanted 



DARK DAYS. 



137 



men to serve them, they should see that they were subjected to 
neither humiliation nor annoyance. As my parish seemed re- 
luctant to let me leave them, I therefore declined the post. 

" On this Professor Fisher turned to others. He dared not 
ask rich clergymen to go, for they would laugh at the salary, 
and poorer men probably felt as I did. Meanwhile a couple 
of months passed. The academical year had begun, but no 
professor had been obtained. Professor Fisher then turned to 
me again. 6 You were my first choice,' said he, 4 but, when you 
declined, I sought the aid of others. But I have obtained no- 
body, and yet I must have help. I am here trying to do an 
indispensable work for the denomination, but I cannot do it 
alone. I want you to help me, and, though I have frankly told 
you the condition of our finances, I hope from the assurances of 
brethren that the money will be forthcoming. It shall not fail 
from any lack of effort on my part.' It was hardly in my 
nature to repulse such an appeal ; and, as brethren whom I 
soon met at the Universalist General Convention in Boston 
promised to aid in securing my salary, I went. I thought it as 
likely as not that the pledges would be fulfilled." 

I here interrupt Mr. Goodrich's sketch, reserving the 
facts which immediately follow for another connection, 
and pass to his account of the circumstances which 
broke his relations with the school, and induced him to 
return to the parish he had left in Pawtucket. He 
writes : — 

"But I suppose I must refer again -to the matter which 
finally sundered my connection with the school. Possibly the 
promises made to Professor Fisher and myself would have been 
fulfilled in respect to pecuniary aid, had not the war broken 
out. Everybody then of adult age, however, recollects how 
anxious were the experiences and how absorbing the solici- 



138 



MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



tildes of that contest; and but little thought was given to the 
Theological School, or to the two ministers who had been al- 
lured toward the borders of Canada to train young men for the 
ministry. To the credit of Professor Fisher, however, I must 
say that he never forgot his promises. When, at the close of 
my first year at Canton, a part of my little salary was unpaid, 
and the question was left in suspense whether I should leave 
or remain, my colleague went ( September, 1861) to the United 
States Convention, then meeting in the city of New York, and 
made an earnest personal appeal to the brethren for help to 
maintain the school. He proposed that fifty persons or soci- 
eties be responsible for the salary of his associate. In response 
to his entreaty, nearly the requisite number of names was se- 
cured, and he and myself and a few friends in Canton and 
Potsdam made up the balance, and the second year was bridged 
over. 

" But the close of that year saw thick clouds brooding over 
our national horizon. Thousands of our countrymen knew 
not whether they had a country or not, and the school at Can- 
ton seemed to many of our denomination so trivial a matter, 
that I foresaw that if I remained at Canton, I should be subject 
to perpetual humiliation and uncertainty. Meanwhile the so- 
ciety that I had left when I went to Canton were without a 
pastor, and wished me to return ; and, as I had done my part 
toward sustaining a theological school, and the denomination 
were indifferent to the matter, I concluded to withdraw. I 
therefore announced my decision to my colleague ; and his 
reply was : ' I do not wonder at your determination, and I 
frankly say that your decision frees me from the necessity of 
importuning our brethren ; but your withdrawal is a sad blow 
to the school.' " 

It has seemed to me well that Mr. Goodrich's narra- 
tive of his experience of the dark days at Canton should 



DARK DAYS. 



139 



be given entire, though it in some regards anticipates 
the plan which I had marked out for this history. Be- 
fore returning to the narrative, I pause to explain. To 
account for things is by no means attempting their 
Justification. The fact is indisputable that the proverb, 
u Out of sight, out of mind," held with too much of 
truth in regard to the important experiment that was 
being tried near the Canadian border. Professors 
Fisher and Goodrich were neglected. Their rightful 
expectations were not met. They did not receive jus- 
tice ; and the tone of complaint in the statement which 
has been given is fully warranted by the facts. But the 
explanation (which is by no means a justification) is 
this : While Tufts College was the creation of the denom- 
ination irrespective of State lines, and received aid from 
all sections, the burden of it naturally fell upon New 
England, and more especially upon Massachusetts. Dr. 
Ballou, its first President, was doing an immense ser- 
vice, for a support greatly out of proportion to the work 
done. . Rev. Dr. A. A. Miner, his successor as Presi- 
dent, gave three years of service : I say " gave," for he 
neither asked nor received a salary. Every member of 
the Faculty was laboring at a very inadequate compen- 
sation. The anxiety was great. The struggle was hard 
to keep the institution in operation. There were con- 
stant apprehensions that the enterprise might fail ut- 
terly, to the humiliation and almost the demoralization 
of the denomination. President Miner was before the 
Massachusetts legislature, petitioning for State aid. 



140 MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 

He was interviewing men of wealth, and making every 
endeavor to enlist their practical sympathy. The Mas- 
sachusetts churches were assessed in order that the 
current expenses of the College might he provided for. 
Those who had given largely found themselves com- 
pelled to give more to save what they had given at the 
first. And I know that not a few did say : " With this 
burden on our hands. New York ought to take care of 
its Theological School." 

On the other hand, it was said that the Canton 
School, though in Xew York, was in no sense a State 
institution ; that as the only school of the kind it was 
for the whole country : that Xew England was getting 
the chief benefit from it, as the larger proportion of the 
Canton graduates were called to Xew England parishes. 

It is no part of my duty to sit as umpire on this 
question, now happily of the past. On whichever side 
there may have been blame, or however the blame ma}' 
have been distributed over both parties, the serious 
consequence was that the Canton school was the suf- 
ferer ; the professors were not getting what had been 
virtually promised them ; and the school was brought 
to the brink of failure. 

Dr. Fisher — the honorary D.D. was conferred upon 
him by the Lombard University, in 1862 — had been 
led into an agreement with his assistant which he could 
not meet unless he gave himself personally to the busi- 
ness of raising the funds ; and, as it was not in his na- 
ture to give a pledge and neglect it, he added to the 



DARK DAYS. 



141 



arduous duties of his office the much harder and most 
vexatious of duties, that of begging his brethren to 
remember their promises ; and this necessitated the 
leaving of his post to perambulate the country, that by 
personal appeal he might meet his agreement and save 
the school. I was present at the General Convention 
of the denomination, in September, 1861, in New York, 
and heard his appeal, — the same that Mr. Goodrich 
has referred to. I remember the look of determination 
with which he entered the pulpit : the session was held 
in Dr. E. H. Chapin's church. He began by stating 
the situation at Canton, the promises that had been 
made him, on the strength of which he had made prom- 
ises ; that he was in honor bound to see that his assist- 
ant had the support that was named in the contract ; 
that it was not his business, — it was that of the de- 
nomination ; that he ought not to be there to plead for 
what should come without any plea. And he put the 
question: u Will you here, before this Convention ad- 
journs, give me the pledge that shall enable the Canton 
work to go on ? " I make no attempt to recall his 
words : I only give their scope. But the earnestness 
with which they were uttered had a great effect. 

The particular plan was to get fifty persons to promise 
each a specific sum, the object being to meet current 
obligations, in the hope that an endowment-fund of 
twenty-five thousand dollars might be secured by other 
methods, and so put the second professorship on a 
stable foundation. In that immediate and temporary 



142 



MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



object Dr. Fisher was successful. The fifty names were 
obtained from various parts of the land. Five were 
from Providence ; one or two, I believe, from Paw- 
tucket ; several from Boston ; and some from New 
York. Though he had obtained relief from a present 
exigency, and was by no means assured as to the future, 
Dr. Fisher returned to his work with a much lighter 
heart. 

A letter dated Canton, Dec. 1, 1858, to his mother, 
of interest itself, incidentally reveals some of the fears 
and anticipations which weighed upon him the first year 
of his Canton life : — 

" My dear Mother, — This is your seventy-second birth- 
day ; and, as I have for several years past commemorated it by 
writing you a letter, I cannot neglect to do so this year. I 
feel, indeed, that I have a special reason to do so this year, 
because I have removed so much farther from my old home 
and my early friends ; but to be distant is not to forget, and I 
can witness that my feelings are rot diminished in sincerity 
nor in frequency by the increase of distance. I hope and trust 
that your health and enjoyment are still preserved to you, so 
that you can still thank the Giver of all good for prolonged 
life, as feeling that it is a blessing. My own health is quite 
good, — equal, indeed, to the best average of several years. I 
enjoy my labors here very much, and from the testimonies of 
those around me am led to hope that I am doing some good. 
I have now nine students, and they are very good and promis- 
ing young men. It was not in my thoughts, when I wrote you 
last year, that I should write the next year from this place or 
position. But so a good Providence has ordered it, and I have 
no reason to complain. We hope, if it please God, that before 
many more months are past we shall be able to make you a 



DARK LAYS. 



143 



visit. The children are all well, and I can hear them romping 
and tearing around the house, just as I can remember to have 
done in days which do not yet seem to me to be very far in the 
past distance. 

" I wish to send you some little present ; and, not thinking of 
any thing else which I can so conveniently send by mail, 
I enclose . . . 

"Your son, Eben Fisher/' 



144 



MEMOIR OF EBEXEZER FISHER. 



CHAPTER XII. 



A CRISIS. 



The School Work. — First Graduation Day. — First Presenting of 
Diplomas. — First Address to Graduates. — Receiying the D.D. 

— Class of 1862. — T\~ar depletes the School. — "All under one 
Umbrella." — Efforts to endow a second Professorship. — Dr. 
Fisher in great Anxiety. — Writes to Key. Mr. Balch. — The 
Crisis forced. — Light in the dark Cloud. — Gifts actual and con- 
ditional. — Charles A. Popes. — Great relief of Mind. — Letters 
to Mr. Ropes. — Graphic Statement of Mr. Balch. — John Craig. 

— The " Man for a Crisis." — Statement of Dr. Saxe. — Letter 
and Check from Mr. Ropes. — Dr. Fisher's pathetic Response. — 
The Canton School sure of a Future. 

nr^HE statement of Rev. M. Goodrich in giying the 



■** , negotiations which brought him to Canton, and 
of the failures to meet pledges which prompted his 
resignation, necessarily has anticipated some phases of 
this history. I now return to the date of his assuming 
duty in Canton, and give a few facts of the working 
of the school. His acceptance relieyed Professor 
Fisher of much anxiety and toil, and the affairs of the 
school passed along well during his term of service. 
Still he had on his mind the constant anxiety arising 
from uncertain support. A fund must be raised to 
endow another professorship, else it could haye no 
permanency. He was therefore ever seeking a way by 




A CEISIS. 



145 



which this could be done. The war coming on in the 
spring of 1861 put a stop to this and nearly all other 
enterprises except the urgent one of saving the country. 

Professors Fisher and Goodrich contrived to give in- 
struction to some students of the literary department, 
and Professor Lee rendered some aid in the theological 
school. In his many cares, difficulties, and anxieties. 
Professor Fisher had one great satisfaction, as profound 
and inspiring as it was novel. April 18, 1861, he had 
the strange pleasure of giving diplomas to the first class 
that graduated from the school. It was an occasion of 
great interest, not alone to himself, but to many friends 
of the school. The class consisted of five, one of whom 
died after a successful pastorate of one year, and the 
others, as I have stated, are now actively engaged in 
the duties of the ministry. Professor Fisher gave an 
address to the graduating class, which was published 
in the 66 Christian Ambassador," then the New York 
State paper. It was full of paternal admonition and ad- 
vice, such as he was ever in the habit of giving to his 
students on appropriate occasions. His were words of 
hope and cheer to them, as they stood there, " in all 
their youthful zeal and energy, ready to step forward 
into the world's great field of labor." He said : " You 
are the first fruits of my labors in a sphere which I have 
felt throughout to be of the highest importance and to 
involve the weightiest responsibilities. Beyond all 
others, then, I feel an intense interest in your fu- 
ture faithfulness and usefulness, and I can well adopt, 

10 



146 MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



with reference to you. the sentiment of Paul : i; For now 
I live, if ye stand fast in the [service of the] Lord." 

As these words fell from his lips, his voice. Dr. Lee 
tells me. became slightly tremulous, his countenance 
assumed a heavenly glow, his whole demeanor indicated 
intense feeling ; and all hearts were moved, and tears 
started from many eyes. Herein lay the secret of his 
hold on his students. He manifested the tenderest and 
deepest interest in them, not only while they were mem- 
bers of the school, but after they had gone forth into 
the world to do service there. 4 'In this address," Dr. 
Lee continues. **he urged them to enter upon their 
work not as sectarians merely, but as Christian minis- 
ters, to maintain true catholicity of feeling, while they 
were to be loyal to the denomination, to be firm in their 
convictions, filled with the spirit of Christ, and labor in 
trust and hope." 

On the evening before. Rev. W. S. Balch gave an 
address, in which he congratulated the faculty, the stu- 
dents, the trustees, and friends of the school, upon the 
auspicious occasion of the graduation of the first class, 
and called upon all to rejoice that they were permitted 
to witness this, a kind of first fruits of the prayers, 
the labors, and the contributions of the friends of the 
school. 

In regard to this preliminary service. Dr. Lee writes 
me: *-It was fitting that Mr. Balch should stand in 
this place on this occasion, for no man. perhaps, did 
more than he to establish and endow the school. It 



A CRISIS. 



147 



was the child of his prayers and toils. He laid the 
corner-stone, and it was now fitting that he welcome 
the members of the first class, and, with his blessing as 
well as that of the Principal, send them into the vine- 
yard of the Master. The members of this class, at the 
date of graduation, were Daniel Ballou, A. B. Hervey, 
M. R. Leonard, William M. Pattee, James M. Pull- 
man, — differing somewhat, as will be noticed, from its 
composition when it began. 

In June, 1862, Professor Fisher received the honorary 
degree of D.D. from Lombard University, Galesburg, 
Illinois ; and ever after this he was known by the 
familiar title, Dr. Fisher. 

In April, 1862, another class of seven graduated ; 
and each year, from that time to the present, a class 
has gone forth from the school, with the exception of 
1866 and 1867. The war depleted the classes, and in 
the last year of the struggle few entered, so that during 
the two years following there were none to graduate. 
Dr. Fisher used to boast laughingly that at one time the 
whole school consisted of himself and one student, Ira 
Adams, who left, without graduating, in 1866. His 
humor put the situation sententiously : "At that time 
the whole school, including the faculty, could walk 
under one umbrella ! " 

I again return to the trying date of Professor Good- 
rich's resignation. In 1862, as has been noted, the 
failure to establish the needful, the indispensable, fund 
occasioning that withdrawal, left Dr. Fisher alone 



148 MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



again. But the services of Professor Lee were once 
more secured to teach Greek Exegesis and Natural 
Theology ; though, being still at the head of the college, 
he could devote only a few hours in the week to the 
theological classes. Professor Lee remained in this 
position for three years, until a new professor was 
elected in 1865. During these three years, Dr. Fisher 
made great efforts to obtain an endowment of another 
professorship. He was authorized by the executive 
committee to secure an agent to enter the field. 66 In 
1864," — again I quote Dr. Lee, — ii Eev. Mr. Balch 
was appointed agent to raise twenty-five thousand dol- 
lars. He hesitated about taking hold of the work 
again. He had toiled and founded the school, and 
now he was urged to make an effort to save it. It is a 
matter of history that Dr. Fisher became almost dis- 
couraged at one time, and was on the point of resigning 
his place and giving up the whole enterprise. He felt 
disappointed, chagrined, hurt, that the denomination did 
not come forward and subscribe enough to put the school 
in good working order, under two professors who could 
employ all their time for the interests of the school." 

A plan for removing the school to Massachusetts had 
been conceived. In a letter to Mr. Balch, dated, Canton, 
New York, Dec. 6, 1864, Dr. Fisher writes: ""If the 
school could be properly endowed here, I for one would 
oppose its removal to Massachusetts, and I would in any 
event oppose its removal unless it could be amicably 
accomplished, with full consent of those most nearly 



A CRISIS. 



149 



concerned. But, on the other hand, if the school is not 
properly endowed ; if being out of sight it is out of 
mind ; if newspaper appeals fail and convention reso- 
lutions are barren ; if no live man is willing to act as 
its agent to solicit funds ; if all efforts which I put forth 
for it must be made at a constant disadvantage ; if the 
collected wisdom of our Board of Trustees can devise no 
way but to leave the whole thing on my shoulders, tied 
up as I am here, forty weeks out of the year, including 
every week when such w r ork can be done to advantage 
in the cities, — who is to blame me if I listen and reply 
with avidity to questions coming from a friend of the 
school and the denomination ? " In another letter he 
writes: " This fund must be made up, or I shall feel 
that it is of no use longer to struggle to sustain a Theo- 
logical School in Canton." 

A crisis had come. It could not be deferred or 
evaded. The continuing of the Canton School was 
contingent upon the raising of a fund of not less than 
twenty-five thousand dollars for the support of the sec- 
ond professorship. The crisis was to be met, not with 
words, nor with circulars, nor with convention resolu- 
tions, — all of which, though good, needful, and in the 
end effective, could not answer the imperative claim. 
Can and will this fund be raised ? The answer must be 
in acts, — in the sum pledged and secured. It was a 
dark cloud, and the future was not cheering. Suddenly % 
however, a ray shot through the darkness. Dr. Fisher 
said to me, in the summer of 1874, that he had 



150 MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



extorted the permission to make public a fact which up 
to that date he had been compelled to keep a strict 
secret. That fact was to the effect that one man had 
come to the rescue in a crisis and by the conditional 
gift of five thousand dollars, had in what followed 
literally saved the Theological School at Canton. This 
was in the year 1874. At a later date the denomina- 
tional paper, the " Christian Leader," alluding to the 
matter, had occasion to say this : u Some two or three 
years since, Dr. Fisher called at our office and gave us 
information to this effect : A crisis had come in the 
financial condition of the Canton School. Its destiny 
hung trembling in the balance. The sum of five thou- 
sand dollars was needed — must be had — or the school 
would stop. In that contingency a gentleman, who had 
on former occasions given generously, came to the res- 
cue. He gave the full five thousand dollars, and the 
Canton School was thereby saved. The giver had 
kept him (Dr. Fisher) under injunctions not to give his 
name or in any way indicate the source whence the great 
relief came. He had, however, prevailed upon him to 
remove the injunction of secrecy. ' Now,' added Dr. 
Fisher, s you may tell the denomination who gave that 
five thousand dollars, — Charles A. Ropes, of Salem.'" 
I introduce this important fact here to add that Mr. 
Ropes had been a parishioner of. Dr. Fisher in Salem; 
that he had formed a regard for his pastor that indeed 
included, }^et rose above, personal attachment ; that he 
had seen in his pastor what seemed to him a providen- 



A CRISIS. 



151 



tial man ; that the call to Canton impressed him as a 
fulfilment of the providential intent ; that it had come 
to him as a conviction that it was a solemn duty to 
maintain the teacher in his responsible position, — and, 
as fortune had smiled upon him, he was ready to do his 
part. But he did not wish to be personally known in 
the character of a donor. He had therefore, privately 
and under an injunction of secrecy, said to Dr. Fisher in 
substance: "In order to relieve you of the responsi- 
bility you must incur, I will give you outright, in instal- 
ments, the sum of one thousand dollars ; and, farther" 
(the pivotal fact on which the future of the school 
hinged), " if you can get other parties to give twenty thou- 
sand dollars to endow the second professorship, I will add 
to the same five thousand dollars, — twenty-five being the 
minimum on which the professorship can be maintained" 

Of this pledge toward the fund, more presently. 
Here I make particular note of the separate and un- 
conditional gift of one thousand dollars, whereby, in 
connection with assistance derived in smaller sums 
from other parties, he was enabled to get incidental 
assistance. 

But in the lack of a permanent fund, the relief was 
temporary. Every year the same ordeal must, be 
passed, and with painful solicitude as to the result. It 
was this harassing contingency that Professor Goodrich 
not only saw, but keenly felt. Hence, as he has stated 
and explained, his resignation and return to New Eng- 
land. Dr. Fisher told me that, in all his professional 



152 



MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



career, he never, before or since, experienced such a 
sense of relief as that imparted by Mr. Eope's pledge. 
He had a new hope. The fulness of his joy for at least 
one night robbed hirn of sleep. 

At my urgent solicitation. Mr. Eopes has put into 
my hands, for such use as I rind needful in making an 
accurate and complete history, certain letters from Dr. 
Fisher, addressed to himself. From these I make such 
extracts as seem to me pertinent. These I give in this 
connection, adding, however, that other parties, as I 
shall explain, were at work in the hard endeavor to 
raise the twenty thousand dollars. Mr. Ropes had 
written to Dr. Fisher his twofold proposition. — I must 
again ask the reader to be particular in keeping distinct 
the unconditional offer of one thousand dollars for cur- 
rent needs and the conditional offer towards the pro- 
fessorship fund. Under date, Canton, Sept, 22, 1863, 
Dr. Fisher replies : — 

et Yours of the seventeenth was duly received, and it gave 
me so much joy that I could hardly sleep during the night, but 
lay long awake revolving many things of the past and resolving 
as to what must he done in the future. But your propositions 
have lifted a great weight of anxiety from me. I express my 
joy; it is not for me to thank you, for I am but a fellow-worker 
with you, and the best proof of appreciation which I can give 
is to do my part as well as you are doing yours. I will explain 
to you my plans. 

First, of that which practically comes first. The thousand 
dollars must meet some present necessities. For I think 
it unwise to overlook the present need while making pro- 



A CRISIS. 



153 



vision for some future which can care for itself. My first 
step, then, was to engage Professor Lee to assist me, as he did 
last year. To meet his salary and some other matters, I will 
ask you to send me one hundred and twenty-five dollars on 
the first of January, April, July, and October, 1864, each, — 
making five hundred dollars for the year. My own salary is 
still in arrears, and it is needful that it should be paid to meet 
that. I will ask you to send me, on receipt of this, five hun- 
dred dollars, of which I will use say three hundred dollars to 
meet this deficiency, and with the balance will take up a mort- 
gage on my property here (falling due in April, but which I 
cannot well meet), and I will have the mortgage transferred to 
the Institution in such way as to relieve me and secure the 
money and interest to them. Should the twenty-five thousand 
dollar plan fail (which I trust it will not), I shall then use this 
five hundred dollars to carry on the assistant professorship in 
1865, so that I shall feel assured of getting on for two years to 
come, and shall have that time to work in. And, finally, every 
dollar of this thousand which I can save or redeem from its 
temporary use for the professorship, as above, I shall devote to 
the Loan Fund to aid poor students in accomplishing their 
course of study here. I hope that I can at last bring a pretty 
large share of it into that use ; and I shall consider all the 
above uses as merely temporary, to meet an exigency and re- 
lieve a present pressure. If in any particular your judgment 
disapproves of the above plan or any part of it, please say what 
and wherein. 

" As to the twenty-five thousand dollars, I have written to a 
friend, who was in hopes to raise ten thousand dollars in New 
York ; also to others ; and I will have a proper notice in the 
" Ambassador." I hope it will be the beginning of better days 
for our struggling Institution. Your offer says, twenty thou- 
sand dollars raised " in New York ; " but I suppose you did 
not intend to limit us to this State, but will be satisfied if we 
only get the twenty thousand dollars. 



154 



MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



u I hope, also, that if in the result we can only raise fifteen 
thousand dollars additional, you will accept that, since it would 
enable us to go on very well with the two professors, and would 
meet our practical and pressing necessities. But I shall work 
hard to get up the twenty-five thousand in all." 

How this letter was received can be inferred from 
another, elated Canton, Sept. 29 : — - 

" Yours, with the enclosed draft of five hundred dollars, 
came safe to hand, and I thank you for your promptness to 
meet my plans. Be assured that I understand the responsi- 
bility under which I am placed with regard to it, and will 
watch and economize it as I would an inheritance which be- 
longed to my own children." 

The following, from a letter to Mr. Ropes, dated. 
Canton. Nov. 16, 1863, reports the moderate yet some- 
what encouraging success which had attended the effort 
to raise the fund : — 

" I have delayed writing to you in the hope that I might 
give some more definite account of our success and prospects ; 
but, as nothing very definite has yet come to my knowledge, I 
will inform you what indications we thus far have. Brother 
Brooks was the first to respond for five hundred dollars in be- 
half of a friend in his society. Dr. Sawyer next announced 
that two of his friends would give five hundred dollars each ; 
and, next, Brother Dolphus Skinner agreed to give one thousand 
dollars if the sum could be made up. You will thus see that we 
have two thousand five hundred dollars pledged. ... In Phila- 
delphia our friends are at work, and I hope that some satisfac- 
tory result will follow in due time. So also in Bhode Island I 
look for some effort in our behalf. Every thing thus far looks 
as auspicious as I could expect. Our school still continues 
small, though I am looking for some additions yet." 



A CRISIS. 



155 



Another letter, of July 16, 1864, contains this: — 

"Yours of the thirteenth, enclosing one hundred and twenty- 
five dollars for the benefit of the Theological School was duly 
received, and I thank you for your prompt and kind attention. 
Do not fear that I shall easily give up the attempt to raise the 
twenty-five thousand dollars, and if faith prevails I shall surely 
succeed." 

Rev. W. S. Balch gives me a thrilling sketch of his 
travels and labors, in response to Dr. Fisher's call, to 
help raise the twenty thousand dollars. He travelled 
in New England, Maryland, and in Pennsylvania, 
meeting with but small success till, reaching Rochester, 
New York, he met with a response that amazed him 
and filled him with joy. Here I must cite a graphic 
passage : — 

" I was in Penn Yan. I had an appointment to be in Roch- 
ester to preach, lecture, and plead my errand. It was a Satur- 
day ; the cars were buried in the snow, — no hope there. I 
found a chance to cross over to Bath, to a branch of the Erie 
road. The train was behind, — none knew at what hour it 
would come. So I waited and watched till nine o'clock Sunday 
morning. We reached Rochester at near the hour of one. I 
ran to the church almost out of breath, and found Brother 
Saxe in the Sunday school, who urged all to circulate the no- 
tice for the evening. 

" After service, the statement of my special object, and the 
audience dismissed, a brother whom I knew not asked me to 
step aside, when he asked me if in my sober judgment 
the St. Lawrence School was well founded and safe. My 
answer was that the Theological School for which I was work- 
ing only needed a few thousands more to make it certain and 



156 MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



sufficient for the present, and at some future time twenty-five 
thousand dollars more, to establish a third professorship, when 
it would be permanent for all future time. He said : ' Call at 
my office to-morrow, at ten.' I did so, Brother Asa Saxe with 
me. Very closely, like a business man, he inquired, and I re- 
hearsed the beginning, progress, conditions, and needs of the 
school. After describing his own affairs, he said: ' I will 
engage to give you fifty thousand dollars ! ' 

" We were astonished. — so much moved that speech gave 
place to feeling. I finally said : ' That is too much for the 
sum I am seeking to make up. The Theological School will 
only need twenty-five thousand dollars more to insure its suc- 
cess. That done, I would not spurn your generous offer, but 
suggest it be given to found a professorship for the college de- 
partment.' ' Well, you finish your subscriptions, and I will 
give what I said, and you can dispose of it as shall be thought 
best.' He then asked : ' How is it with the Clinton School 1 
1 1 do not know, but understand Brother Dolphus Skinner had 
it in hand and got all straight.' Brother Saxe expressed a 
similar opinion. He then said : i Well, I will give that ten 
thousand dollars ; ' and then continued : 1 1 cannot well pay it 
now, but you shall have it in my will, if not paid before, aud. I 
shall not live long.' We expressed the desire that, however 
much the money might be needed, he might live long and be 
happy in his goodness. The 1 Craig Professorships ' testify 
the fulfilment of the promise. Thus encouraged, it took not 
long to complete the fourteen thousand dollars, and thus not 
only was the five thousand dollars of Brother Ropes secured, 
but eighty-five thousand dollars added to our denominational 
interests, in the space of three months, at a cost of three hun- 
dred and four dollars ! Who will say that Universalists are un- 
generous or disloyal 1 The heart of Brother Fisher was made 
glad. Faithful to his vocation, he put forth renewed efforts 
to give dignity, character, permanence, and greater usefulness 
to the Canton Theological School." 



A CM ISIS. 



157 



John Craig was the noble man here referred to. In 
regard to him and his pledges, described by Mr. Balch, 
the Rev. Asa Saxe, D.D., now as then pastor of the 
Rochester Universalist parish, writes me : — 

" I remember being present with Brother Balch at Mr. Craig's 
office when he was raising money for St. Lawrence University, 
and that a handsome sum was foreshadowed as a bequest, but 
further I have no recollection. I had so many subsequent 
consultations with him in regard to that and kindred matters, 
that it is impossible to separate one from another. The matter 
continued to grow in his thought until he finally put one hun- 
dred and five thousand dollars in his will, for denominational 
purposes, which was promptly paid, and is now doing service 
in our cause. 

" Mr. Craig was one of the grandest men our church has ever 
had, — a man of deeds rather than words, — but when he spoke 
it was to the purpose, and his words told. He was a great man 
for a crisis. When I became pastor here, the Unitarians had 
just lost their church by fire, and, under the discouragement, 
concluded to give up. About ten or twelve of their very best 
and most wealthy families took seats with us. We came to re- 
gard them as our people, and to count on and lean on them ; 
and they were splendid people, — the very centre and fibre of 
the Unitarian Church. They were good listeners, and among 
my warmest personal friends. 

" At the end of five years, a Unitarian missionary put in an 
appearance and rallied the fragments of the old Unitarian con- 
gregation. These families, with eminent propriety and without 
any unfriendliness to us, manifested fidelity to their own flag 
by joining the movement. The day their seats became vacant 
in our church was a sad and serious one, for we were by no 
means so numerous and strong then as now. Many were in- 
clined to be discouraged. 



158 



MEMOIR OF EBEXEZER FISHER. 



i; At the close of the service. Mr. Craig said to those within 
the sound of his voice : ; Xow we must all stand by the flag 
and fight all the harder.' They were simple words, but, com- 
ing from such a man, as they were reported from one to another 
they had an electric effect. They carried us over the crisis, and 
I never heard afterwards any words of discouragement from 
that cause. This shows what power there is in words from a 
man who is sure to verify what he says by deeds." 

This is the proper connection for the following from 
Mr. Eopes to Dr. Fisher, under date. Salem. Mass., 
Sept. 28. 1865 : — 

■• Esteemed Friend, — I regretted not seeing you again be- 
fore you left. Enclosed you will please find the five thousand- 
dollar check on Xew York, as you wished it. I cannot fully 
regard this as a gift or donation, but rather as i bread cast upon 
the waters ' for the cause of religion, our country, and our 
fellow-men. In this sense it is an investment, and I feel that 
we are jointly bestowing or investing. — you of the greater gift 
you possess, and I of my simple money-making gift. May all 
redound to the glory of our good Father, and may we ever feel 
that we are not far from the kingdom of heaven if we truly 
4 love God and our fellow-men.'" " 

The following is from Dr. Fisher's reply, under date. 
Canton. Oct. 3. 1865. in which the soul of the long- 
tried and long-suffering teacher finds relief in an ac- 
knowledgment at once cheerful, solemn, and devout : — 

I was away from home on Sunday, and, on my return last 
evening. I received your letter, with the enclosed check of five 
thousand dollars for the Theological School. I read with 
heartfelt emotion the manly Christian sentiments with which 



A CRISIS. 



159 



you commit to my charge this munificent gift for the advance- 
ment of our common faith. I rejoice to have such a co-worker ? 
and in my labors I shall not forget your words. They will, I 
trust, make me more patient and careful. May our Father 
bless all to the glory of his name and the good of men." 

The crisis had been met with deeds : it had been 
safely passed ; and the Canton Theological School was 
firm for the future not less than for the present. 



160 



MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



THE WAR CRISIS. 



The Cloud broken. — Hopeful View of the Future. — Letters to 
Mr. Ropes. — Rev. 0. Cone appointed Professor of Biblical 
Languages and Literature. — Trials occasioned by the War of 
Rebellion. — Party Spirit. — Disastrous Effects. — Injures the 
School within and without. — Dr. Fisher's Policy. — His Ad- 
dress to the Students. — A Reflection. — Friends of the School 
alienated. — The constant Problem. — Dr. Fisher's Attitude as a 
Citizen. — Statement of Rev. Mr. Goodrich. — End of the War. 
A new Start and paid-up Pledges. 



k HE dark cloud had broken. The firm footing had 



been gained. Henceforth the look is both for- 
ward and upward. Anxious fear, paralyzing distrust, 
hope deferred, all give way to a promised land in full 
and firm possession. The hard-toiling and weary presi- 
dent of the Canton Theological School now confronts 
but one serious difficulty, — that of failing health 
and uncertain strength. But he has fought the hard 
battle, and the victory is won. His letters from this 
date have a different tone, — are redolent of happy 
confidence and of the conviction that, his work being 
needed, God has graciously answered his many and 
fervent prayers. The following letter to his Salem 
friend and helper reveals the new spirit with the new 




THE WAR CRISIS. 



161 



assurance. As it makes no allusion to the Craig gifts, 
described by Mr. Balch, it is to be remembered that 
those gifts were for the most part prospective, awaiting 
the providential time to become real and operative. 
It bears date Canton, Jan. 29, 1866 : — 

" Since the New Year came in, I have been thinking that I 
would write to you and inform you of the progress of our 
affairs here in Canton at the school. First, I may say that we 
are all in good health and prosperity personally. I have been 
steadily at work since I left you, in collecting the various 
pledges and subscriptions which I had obtained. I have col- 
lected and invested about nineteen thousand five hundred dol- 
lars. Beside this, I have one thousand dollars assigned for the 
library, of which two hundred dollars has been paid ; and 
some two hundred dollars for the Loan Fund, — which last is 
not reckoned in the twenty-five thousand dollars. There yet 
remain uncollected subscriptions and pledges which I consider 
good to the amount of five thousand dollars. If these are all 
paid, it will give us the twenty-five thousand dollars and five 
hundred dollars over for the Loan Fund. I should add that all 
expenses are paid up to this date, amounting to six hundred 
and ninety-four dollars and seventy-eight cents. So I think 
my hope will be fulfilled, and we shall have twenty-four thou- 
sand dollars invested in mortgages, and one thousand dollars 
in the Library, making twenty-five thousand dollars, with some 
five hundred dollars for the aid of poor students. The Lord 
has blessed me in the work, especially by giving me the help 
of good friends and the blessing of good health to urge on the 
work to its completion. I have now ten students in the school. 
Next year I intend and hope to have twenty new ones ; and 
then I shall feel that the school will have fairly entered on 
its course on the new and improved order of things. Every 
thing now looks auspicious. May it so continue." 

11 y 



162 



MEMOIR OF EBEXEZER FISHER. 



In another connection. I hope to make an accurate 
and just record of the benefactors of the Theological 
School, as also of the College, who proved friends in the 
time of need ; and I shall do this in justice to the his- 
toric facts, though in some instances almost against the 
protest of the donors. Here particulars are deferred, 
it being enough for this connection that the fund for 
the second professorship had become a "fact accom- 
plished." 

Immediate steps were taken to make the new facilities 
available. The question was renewed : Who shall be 
called to the duties of the second professorship ? " Dr. 
Fisher at once thought of his old friend and co-laborer, 
Rev. Mr. Goodrich. I have the means of knowing that, 
while such was his choice, he had not the courage to 
address him on the subject. The humiliation and dis- 
appointment attendant on the first call made him un- 
willing to even name the subject to him. But he none 
the less sought the end by indirection. Another call 
came to Mr. Goodrich, in connection with which Dr. 
Fisher's name did not appear. I am not, indeed, abso- 
lutely certain, but very confident, that he was t; behind' 
that action of the trustees, though the suggestion, even 
if it did not come from him, wa-s in full accord with this 
judgment and preference. But Mr. Goodrich, in ac- 
cordance with the strongly expressed wishes of his peo- 
ple in Pawtucket. declined the call. Several persons 
were then spoken of; and finally, Sept. 1, 1865. the 
choice fell upon Rev. Orello Cone, a young man settled 



THE WAR CRISIS. 



163 



at Little Falls, New York, who had not been long con- 
nected with the denomination. He accepted, and his 
subsequent fourteen years' service as Professor of Bib- 
lical Languages and Literature has proved his thor- 
oughness as a scholar, specially in German theology and 
exegesis, and his fitness for the place. 

I began this chapter with the statement that " the 
dark cloud had broken," and that henceforth a new 
spirit, a new hope, a new cheerfulness, filled the heart 
of the man to whom the great enterprise of founding a 
theological school had been entrusted. But the date 
must be noted. It was the year 1865, and the terrible 
war was then just at an end. 

To give completeness to particular stages of this his- 
tory, I find it necessary to carry one stage forward, 
while others are left behind, awaiting each its time. 
I must leave the date 1865 and return to an earlier 
period, and describe other constituents in the dark cloud 
than those of financial struggle. 

The trials naturally and inevitably incident to the en- 
terprise of founding a new institution, and one depend- 
ent on the gifts of a people who had not as yet been 
educated to the giving for interests outside of their par- 
ishes, were enough to try the temper and the faith of 
those on whom the immediate responsibility was placed. 
But to natural trials were added unnatural and yet 
greater and more threatening ones. 

The school had got no more than a simple start when, 
at the very time of the struggle to provide for a new 



164 



MEMOIR OF EBEXEZER FISHER. 



professorship, the terrible civil war came. T.he two 
years of crude beginning made but a frail preparation 
for a convulsion so fearful. And it was civil war with 
the uniform attendants of that most bitter, most personal, 
most destructive, and most demoralizing of sanguinary 
contests. The passions that were aroused ; the crimina- 
tions and recriminations ; the variances among parishes, 
neighborhoods, and families. — are frightful to recall 
even now that their worst fruits have passed away. 
They were terrible in the endurance. How the little 
poorly equipped Canton vessel survived the long-con- 
tinued national tempest, it even now puzzles us to 
explain. But there was a strong man, a man of faith 
and of devout consecration, at its helm. In very dif- 
ferent forms, indeed, even the story of Columbus is a 
part of the history that " repeats itself." 

Impulsive young men. I hardly need say, are the 
most indiscreet of partisans. They are apt, in this 
republic, to be ardent politicians. They inherit, not 
unfrequently. the convictions, prejudices, and sympa- 
thies of their parents, or acquire those of their asso- 
ciates, and add thereto the heats and the indiscretions 
of inexperience. Dr. Fisher's ;i boys" — in their rela- 
tion to the political excitement he called them boys — 
furnished no exception to the very general rule, and the 
issues precipitated by the cannon-balls thrown upon 
Sumter, were discussed within the precincts of the 
school in very much the same style that they were dis- 
cussed under more pertinent contingencies. Thereby 



I 

THE WAR CRISIS. 165 

the harmony and the usefulness of the infant institution 
were certainly greatly injured, and even its permanence 
was put in special jeopardy. 

My own belief as to the wiser and safer course to 
take under such an unlooked-for danger can have but 
little interest to the reader of these pages, except so 
far as it has some practical relation to the course which 
Dr. Fisher actually pursued. For nearly the whole 
period of his Canton career, I held a responsible edito- 
rial position in connection with one or another of the 
denominational journals. Accepting the view of the 
situation (which Dr. Fisher also maintained) that the 
question at issue was moral quite as much as it was 
political, — that question being none other than the 
dominance and extension of the institution of slavery, 
— I felt that short and decisive measures were called 
for in dealing with those who had not come to the same 
conclusion, or, in case they had come to the same con- 
clusion, were indifferent as to the result. 

Dr. Fisher felt very differently. At the time of jour- 
neying to the General Convention of Universalists held 
at Galesburg, Illinois, after the war, I sat with him all 
the way from Prescott, opposite Ogdensburg — where he 
joined our company — to Toronto ; and the one leading 
topic of our conversation was the policy that should 
have been pursued everywhere, — not alone at Canton, 
but in the churches, — in reference to the "moral 
issues " of the Rebellion. His position was based upon 
his constant!}' growing discovery that the young man of 



166 MEMO IB OF EBEXEZER FISHER. 



twenty really gives but little indication of what he will 
be at forty ; that the young radical is quite likely to 
ripen into an old conservative ; that the young conser- 
vative is all the more certain to be radical as he grows 
older ; that youth is in fact not the period of real con- 
victions, but of impulses ; that it is to be managed 
rather than resisted ; that it is to be led rather than 
directed ; and that its errors, even if they pertain to 
4 4 the sum of all villainies." are not necessarily sinful, 
and do not therefore necessitate didactic instruction or 
moral censure. On more than one occasion the humble 
editor and the revered teacher differed, perhaps sharply, 
in the prints of the denominational press. In every in- 
stance the public disagreement gave both parties great 
pain ; for the younger (who was the editor) felt the 
deepest reverence for the elder ; and the elder was the 
strong friend and well-wisher of the younger. 

As for the question which was right and which was 
wrong, or in what proportion the right and wrong 
should be distributed, let it await the determination of 
that judicial period, when not only the heats but the 
prejudices of the epoch have become things of the past. 
But here let me make the record that never did I see 
occasion to distrust the sincerity and the high consecra- 
tion of the man who felt it his duty to lead his infant 
institution through the difficulties of the awful crisis, 
and to hand it down for greater service under the new 
conditions of the future. 

It will be remembered that the agitation of the war 



THE WAR CRISIS. 



167 



embraced the political convulsion of the year 1860, 
which resulted in the election of Abraham Lincoln to 
the Presidency of the United States, — agitations un- 
paralleled in bitterness, as were the immediate issues. 
Here, again, the pen of the Rev. Mr. Goodrich gives an 
" inside view " of the Canton School. He writes 
me : — 

On arriving at Canton, I went to work. Professor Fisher 
and myself made a division of the studies, and each took charge 
of his allotted task. We found embarrassments both within 
the school and without. The Presidential election occurred 
soon after I reached Canton, and the movements which soon 
resulted in our terrible civil war quickly followed. Though 
our school was almost on the Canada line, the students could 
not be indifferent to the political agitations which were convuls- 
ing the country. Party spirit ran high, and T soon had oc- 
casion to note the sagacity and high conscientiousness which 
characterized Professor Fisher. He had told me that there was 
sharp bickering between some of the students on political sub- 
jects, and feared for its effects on that Christian disposition 
which candidates for the ministry ought to foster. But while 
he intimated that it might be necessary to call on the faculty to 
adopt some measures to prevent bitter contention, he expressed 
his unwillingness to trouble me with such matters at the very 
outset of my connection with the school. He soon, therefore, 
resorted to another expedient. 

" It was customary for all the classes to meet together every 
morning for devotion before beginning the recitations of the 
day. On two mornings of the week, the professors conducted 
the exercises, and on the other mornings the students in turn 
led in the. reading of the Scriptures and in prayer. On one 
morning, therefore, when Professor Fisher's turn came, he read, 
with manifest feeling, the third chapter of the letter of James ; 



168 



MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



and, before prayer, he commented at some length on the im- 
portance of governing the tongue. He spoke with plainness of 
the proneness which he had seen on the part of some of the 
students to indulge in taunting, irritating remarks. Such re- 
marks of course provoked bitter or sarcastic replies, and Chris- 
tian sympathy seemed likely to expire under the blows of con- 
tention. 

" It was before Fort Sumter had been fired on ; but Professor 
Fisher reminded the students of the portents in the very air. 
i It may be/ said he in substance, ' that these sectional conten- 
tions will result in war : and, should this be the case, the 
country will have need of the services and prayers of all her 
children. It is our duty at present to strive to calm the agita- 
tion, and if possible to avert war: and we, as those who propose 
to teach others lessons of self-control, should learn to rule our 
own tongues.' With paternal manner, therefore, and earnest 
expostulation, he besought the students to foster Christian 
charity, br^ad nationality, and that brotherly courtesy which 
should make their present intercourse agreeable, and in the 
future leave sweeter memories of their connection in the school. 
I am glad to say that the appeal was not wholly in vain. Of 
course a good deal of human nature still remained in the stu- 
dents, but thenceforth there was more forbearance and a more 
genial courtesy. Professor Fisher himself gladly acknowledged 
to the students, at some festal day afterward, that he believed 
they had striven to profit by his expostulations." 

But the disturbing effects of the war were by no means 
restricted to Canton. These were felt all over the land, 
and not unfrequently a man's foes were those of his own 
household. Of course the frail and as yet merely in- 
cipient institution at Canton felt the shock. In some 
instances, they who had been its friends, even cham- 



THE WAR CRISIS. 



169 



pions, became, if not its enemies, at least indifferent to 
its fate. Promised subscriptions were withheld. Prom- 
ised co-operation was not made real, and they who had 
placed dependence thereupon found themselves resting 
upon a reed. And the great community, which under 
ordinary circumstances might have been quickened into 
something of practical sympathy for the school, was so 
rigidly held by the awful possibilities of the civil strife 
that any attempt to get even its attention failed. Pro- 
fessor Goodrich was in a special degree the sufferer. 
The special pledges which were potential in bringing 
him to Canton — in warranting Professor Fisher in 
giving him the assurances that secured his assistance — 
wholly failed, and mainly because of the animosities 
incidental to the war. Dark days indeed those were. 
Why must the better kingdom be so often taken as with 
violence ? The tempests of a century drive the exposed 
mountain oak to sink deeper, and spread wider, the 
roots upon which its future greatness and grandeur de- 
pend. If the analogy holds, the Canton School cannot 
fail of durability and usefulness in the coming days. Is 
it not true that in the days of its tribulation God 
watched over it, and raised up strong men and women 
to be its protectors? I am so persuaded. 

Whatever hesitation Dr. Fisher may have felt as to 
the proper and just course to be taken with the institu- 
tion, he never hesitated for an instant in taking a posi- 
tion in regard to his imperilled country. Full of care, 
worked beyond his strength, anxious as to the effect of 



170 



MEMOIR OF EBEXEZER FISHER. 



party divisions upon his special charge, he nevertheless 
found time and made opportunities to attest his position 
as a patriot, and to influence others to be true to their' 
country in the awful contingency. Once more the in- 
dustrious and prompt pen of Rev. Mr. Goodrich comes 
to my assistance. I insert the following sketch as 
graphic in its portrayal as it is valuable as authentic 
history : — 

" As yon have intimated that it would be gratifying to you 
to receive any further information about him that I feel at 
liberty to supply, I propose to give a few facts about his career 
as a patriotic citizen, and during the two years I was associated 
with him. 

i: The threatening aspect of public affairs in the earlier portion 
of 1S61 gave him great concern. The prospect of a civil war 
of such proportions as would mark a contest between the two 
sections of our land made him shudder. He clung as long as 
possible to the hope of a peaceful solution of our difficulties. 
More than once he expressed his wish that Anderson were well 
out of Fort Sumter. In some respects, indeed, his views dif- 
fered from my own. In some matters, I feel that cool audacity 
is the highest prudence ; and it seemed to me at times that the 
halting policy of President Lincoln was a perilous one. Per- 
haps Professor Fisher foresaw more clearly than myself the 
magnitude of the strife, and was very anxious to secure for the 
government the support of every Northern citizen. Hence he 
was exceedingly solicitous to avoid any thing that savored of 
narrow partisanship. On the Fourth of July, -in that year, he 
delivered an oration at Potsdam. I did not listen to it, but 
heard from citizens of that town that it was a thoughtful 
address, enforcing the lessons of the Revolutionary struggle, 
and inculcating a lofty patriotism. In the following fall, the 



THE WAR CRISIS. 



171 



annual election was to take place in the State, and Professor 
Fisher attended the County Convention, which was held in 
Canton. As is well known, St. Lawrence County is over- 
whelmingly Bepublican, and would elect any nominee it 
pleased ; but Professor Fisher was anxious to secure a national 
rather than a party triumph. He therefore advocated the 
nomination of a Union ticket for county officers, whereon the 
names of some loyal Democrats should be put. I was not pres- 
ent at the convention, for I had scarcely become a voter ; but 
I heard that Professor Fisher made a powerful speech in sup- 
port of the policy he favored, and carried the convention with 
him. Such a ticket was nominated and afterward trium- 
phantly elected. 

" Time rolled on ; reverses and trials gradually made patriots 
of one heart, and an emphatic demand began to be made on 
the President for a proclamation of emancipation. As every- 
body knows, however, there was a class at the North who con- 
tinued to favor a rose-water policy. We had some of them in 
Canton, and were made to see how reluctant they were to 
touch the sacred institution of slavery. It was proposed to 
hold a Union celebration in our town on Independence Day, 
1862. A committee selected to make arrangements for a town 
gathering, however, found trouble in agreeing on a programme. 
It was feared that some of the Republicans were so radical that 
they would be rash enough to hint that the ulcer in our body- 
politic was slavery. It was apprehended that one or two of 
them might suggest that it was doubtful wh ether the Union 
cause would triumph till the administration got rid of its 
squeamishness, and decided to accept the services of the sable 
sons of the land in helping to put dowm the rebellion. I do 
not know whether Professor Fisher was applied to to know how 
guarded he would be in a Fourth of July speech ; but it was 
doubtless finally concluded by some of our timorous brethren 
that neither he nor I would consent to be muzzled. At a late 
hour, therefore, the project of a public meeting was given up. 



172 



MEMOIR OF EBENEZEB FISHER. 



" On the Third of July, however, Professor Fisher came to 
me. and proposed that we hold an informal gathering on the 
University Grounds the next afternoon. He pertinently sug- 
gested that the reverses which McClellan had been suffering on 
the peninsula, and the few successes that had then crowned the 
Union arms, had caused a despondency in the public mind 
from which it was desirable to lift snch of our countrymen as 
we could influence. A patriotic assemblage might, therefore, 
do our townsmen good. Of course I favored the plan. Word 
was therefore passed round that such a meeting would be held. 
At the appointed time, a good concourse gathered. Settees 
were brought from the college building, and placed on the 
shady side of the edifice, a temporary stand erected, and the ex- 
ercises began. Rob Roy was on his own heather, and everybody 
felt at ease. B American " and other national airs were sung, 
and Professor Fisher led off with an earnest speech. Those who 
were wont to hear him speak years before at the Universalist 
Reform Society's yearly meetings can imagine with what energy 
and unction he spoke. Others followed : professors and some of 
the students of the school, and a few professional men of the 
town. As our Methodist brethren sometimes say, when thought 
and expression are very spontaneous, we all enjoyed uncommon 
liberty that day. We did hundreds of our fellow-citizens good, 
therefore, and the verdict was that the St. Lawrence University 
was the nursery, not only of deep piety and sound learning, 
but of bold and genuine patriotism. 

" Another incident I recall, both on account of its solemn 
nature, and because it marked the close of my official connec- 
tion with the Theological School. Shortly after the celebra- 
tion above mentioned, I left Canton for a visit to my native 
city, which I had not visited for two years ; and it was during 
this vacation that the decision was made that I should with- 
draw from the school. Late in September, however, I returned 
to Canton to pack up my goods. It was a week or two after the 
battle of Antietam, and at that battle Colonel Goodrich, a citizen 



THE WAR CRISIS. 



173 



of Canton and a former neighbor of mine, had been killed. 
His lifeless form was brought to Canton for burial, and arrived 
at that town a few hours subsequent to my coming. It was, I 
think, on Thursday evening, and his funeral was to take place 
on the following Saturday. I was gratified to learn that his 
former townsmen had requested Professor Fisher to deliver a 
eulogy on the sad occasion. But I found that my own services 
were also desired. In the previous year, Colonel Goodrich had 
enlisted a company in Canton and the neighborhood, and the 
citizens of the town subscribed for a flag. For some reason I 
was appointed to present it to the company in behalf of the 
givers ; and now, Mrs. Goodrich, widowed as she was, was de- 
sirous that I should tender the special religious consolation 
which she and her fatherless daughter needed. 

" I well recollect the day and the occasion. Glowing sun- 
beams cast their light on the darkened home, and lent glory to 
the landscape around. The religious services were appointed to 
take place at the late abode of the deceased. The house was 
filled to overflowing, and a sympathizing throng crowded the 
front yard and garden. As I stood a little in front of the door, 
indeed, I noticed the massive form of a corpulent man that 
overfilled a large chair by my side, and was told that the vis- 
itor was Preston King, the honored senator, who had come to 
testify his respect for the dead patriot. I performed my part 
of the work, and then the unconscious form was taken by ten- 
der hands to the hearse, and, to the accompaniment of strains 
of wailing music, was borne to the Presbyterian church. As 
that edifice was larger than the Universalist, it was proffered 
for the occasion, and there, in the presence of a great crowd, 
Professor Fisher pronounced the eulogy. I recollect that it was 
earnest, tender, and discriminating ; and I was glad that Dr. 
Fisher stated with emphasis the principles that were at stake in 
the life and death contest then waging in our land. Evidently he 
recollected, while preparing his discourse, that there would be 
some present who would mourn Colonel Goodrich as a neighbor, 



174 



MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



while they yet lacked sympathy for the cause for which he 
poured forth his blood. Hence he paused at one sentence, and 
said, ' Some of you will ask why I lay stress on these matters 1 
I answer, because they are the points which this friend, who 
lies lifeless before us, would emphasize were he able to speak 
to us to-day.' 

" The sad services over, we followed the lifeless form to its 
resting-place, and committed it to the ground, ' dust to dust, 
ashes to ashes.' On the next day, as the Universalist parish 
were destitute of a pastor, I preached to them at their request ; 
and in the quiet Sabbath evening many of the parish joined Pro- 
fessor Fisher, the students, and myself in a farewell conference 
in the College Chapel. And thus, with hymn and prayer, and 
earnest exhortation, my official relation with Professor Fisher 
closed. Our friendship, however, remained unbroken, and, 
though temporarily sundered by death, will be renewed in Par- 
adise, and eternized in Heaven." 

In man}' ways, the passions, the absorbing anxieties, 
the division of scholars and neighbors, even of families, 
occasioned by the war, went hard with the Canton In- 
stitution. Students left ; applicants did not come. At 
one time, as I have before incidentally noted, the Theo- 
logical School had got down to one student and teacher ! 
But the war ended in a victory to the Xation. The 
Union was saved. The situation was accepted, at least 
in form. The tempest subsided, and the little Canton 
ark, with its reduced company, was safely floating upon 
the quiet waters. And all was ready for what proved to 
be auspicious, — a new start on better, and paid-up 
pledges. 



MINOR CRISES. 



175 



CHAPTER XIV. 



MINOR CRISES. 



The changed Prospects. — Few special Incidents. — "Never fin- 
ished." — The College Career. — Reciprocal Services. — Pro- 
fessor Lee. — A third Professorship. — Subscription Support. — 
Professor Lee installed. — Inadequate Salaries. — Dr. Fisher 
called to Tufts. — Another Issue forced. — Successfully met. — 
Rev. D. C. Tomlinson's Canvass. — His Statement. — Meeting 
in Dr. Chapin's Church. — Generous Pledges. — George A. Dock- 
stader's Pledge. — The Fund raised. — "Prospective Grave- 
stones." — Anecdote of P. T. Barnum. — Dr. Fisher's last finan- 
cial Contingency. 



k HE proverb holds true : ' ' Happy the people whose 



- 1 - annals are dull." It is the period of difficulty, of 
heroic struggle to overcome obstacles, of hair-breadth 
escapes, that furnishes incidents. The peaceful flow of 
prosperous enterprise is monotonous in the recital. It 
has no events to thrill and enlist sympathy. The anxi- 
eties, the hopes thwarted, the strategy to carry inten- 
tions into effect, furnish the materials for romance. 
The lovers at last united in marital ties, and happy in 
the attainment of the heart's wish, the novel comes to 
a close. 

The incidents I have gathered, and now presented, 
pertain substantially to the first ten or twelve years of 




176 



MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



Dr. Fisher's life in Canton. They make the readable 
part of the history. After the financial success and 
the safe endowment of the two professorships, with the 
large increase of library and other school facilities, the 
professional life of the hard-tried but now triumphant 
instructor flowed on peacefully. Not that he had no 
new difficulties, no fresh anxieties, no superadded cause 
for regret and complaint. Earnest life is never without 
these. But the mountain of difficulty had been re- 
moved, and new obstacles, however serious in them- 
selves, were trivial in comparison with those which had 
been overcome. I may say, then, that the last ten 
years of Dr. Fisher's life were happy and serene. 
There were the annual examinations, the annual gradu- 
ations, the annual baccalaureates, the annual openings, 
the annual festivals ; and, in all the essentials, each was 
a repetition of its predecessor. The valiant man had 
entered upon the fruits of his labors, and was happy in 
the love of a host of graduates who honored him as a 
spiritual father, who revered and will ever revere his 
pure memory. It is the period of quiet annals, and 
therefore it furnishes few incidents that could interest 
or profit in the recital. 

I have given chapters of the first ten years. A few 
pages may contain all that need be told of the last 
ten as pertaining exclusively to the school. In this 
latter period, there were new contingencies, yet none 
that awakened very serious apprehensions in regard to 
the Institution. In reference to a particular fortress 



MINOR CRISES. 



Ill 



in the process of construction, I once heard the ques- 
tion : u When will that fort be finished? " I remember 
the answer : u Never ! — forts are never finished." In- 
stitutions are never finished. The subscription-book is 
never closed. Always there will be exigencies, and 
alwaj's there will be financial crises. The theological 
school, like the particular fortress, is always in process 
of making, but it is never made. The Canton School 
was not " disposed of," but it was firm and out of dan- 
ger. It might be moved, and have another "local 
habitation," but it was assured. Presently I shall give 
facts in illustration. 

But — so closely did the literary department co- 
operate with the theological — I must again retrace my 
steps and briefly sketch the history of the College. 

In April, 1859, Rev. J. S. Lee — I recapitulate the 
essential facts — came to Canton at the request of the 
Executive Committee, and opened an Academical 
School which was designed, as soon as a fund could be 
raised and students fitted, to be merged in a college. 
The first students began to fit for college, and some of 
them entered upon a full college course. It was also 
understood that Prof. Lee was to teach Greek, and aid 
all in his power in the Theological School. 

The relations between the two departments were, as 
I have sought to make clear, from the beginning friend- 
ly and pleasant. Differences of opinion arose, but no 
outbreaks took place. 

The students of the two schools, after the first term, 
12 



178 



MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



met in separate apartments for the morning devotions, 
and had their separate literary societies. 

In September, 1860, Professor John W. Clapp was 
elected Professor of Mathematics, and labored with Pro- 
fessor Lee until August, 1865, when he resigned, and 
Professor N. White, now President of Lombard Uni- 
versnry, took his place. In September, 1865, Miss 
Henrietta P. Burlington, afterwards Mrs. Bingham, 
was chosen preceptress of the female department, and 
resigned March, 1866, on her marriage with Mr. Bing- 
ham. 

The first class, of two gentlemen, graduated June, 
1865, and a class each year since, with the exception of 
1870. 

After the fifth class had graduated in Jul}-, 1868, 
Professor Lee, who had performed the labor of two men 
nearly all the time since he became connected with the 
College, and had become nervous, worn out, and almost 
discouraged, was granted nine months' leave of ab- 
sence, in order that he might visit Europe and Pales- 
tine, and at the same time Professor "White was elected 
temporary Principal, and Rev. Moses Marston was 
elected Professor of Latin and Greek. In October, 

1868, Rev. R. Fisk, Jr., having been elected President 
of the College, took his place at the head of the 
Faculty. 

Professor Lee returned greatly invigorated in March, 

1869, and resigned his place in the College and accepted 
a professorship in the Theological School. Professor 



MINOR CRISES. 



179 



White resigned in August, 1871, and President Fisk in 
January, 1872. February 9, 1872, Rev. A. G. Gaines, 
pastor of the Canton parish, was appointed acting 
President and Professor of Moral and Intellectual 
Philosoplry, and permanent President, June, 1873, and 
still holds this position. The academical department 
and Preparatory School was abolished in Jul}', 1866, 
and a full course of study, classical and scientific, was 
arranged for the College. For two or three years prior 
to this, students had been pursuing a college course, 
however. Dr. Fisher usually acted as one of the Ex- 
amining Committee of the College, and spoke at annual 
gatherings, and wrote in its favor. 

I make the record that Professor Lee, leaving the Col- 
lege, accepted a professorship in the Theological School. 
This has the important and encouraging characteristic 
of a third professorship. But at the outset this chair 
had the fatal lack, — it was not endowed. But a sub- 
scription was made to pay the salary, to be collected 
annually for five years, Jan. 14, 1869. Mr. Lee's spe- 
cial professorship was that of Ecclesiastical History and 
Biblical Archaeology. On his return from the Old 
World, he accepted the appointment, and took his place 
April 3, 1869. 

Once more Dr. Fisher was made happy. He felt 
that the school was well equipped with teachers, and 
that it must start on a new career of prosperity. At 
the Annual Commencement, following June 28, 1869, 
Professor Lee was consecrated to his office. Prayer 



180 MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 

was offered by Dr. Fisher, and an address was given 
on 6 8 The Province and Uses of Ecclesiastical History " 
by Professor Lee. 

I have said that there were new contingencies. This 
is rigidly true. There were contingencies in themselves 
serious : they were slight only as they contrasted with 
the obstacles which had been overcome. Dr. Fisher's 
salary was small. It had not " gone up" with the war 
prices and the financial inflation, — at least, not in am T 
thing like a just proportion. The school was estab- 
lished and it was endowed. The time had come when 
he must think a little more of himself and his family, 
and he justly demanded an increase of salary. 

At that juncture, a new contingency forced another 
issue. The Trustees of Tufts College had decided to 
add a theological department, for which the late Siiva- 
nus Packard had made a large bequest. 

In the summer of 1869, Dr. Fisher was invited to a 
professorship in the new Divinity School of Tufts Col- 
lege, as colleague with Rev. Dr. T. J. Saw} T er. He 
felt it his duty to accept, unless his salary was increased 
by the adding of 810,000 to the endowment fund of his 
office. His man}' friends, and the friends of the school, 
took alarm. The results I shall soon give. 

The Rev. D. C. Tomlinson, at the time pastor of the 
Universalist Church in Watertown, N. Y., had disclosed 
an unusual faculty in the canvass for funds. At differ- 
ent times he served the Canton schools, and with solid 
results. At my call, he gives me the interesting recital 



MINOR CRISES. 



181 



of his twofold endeavor to raise funds for the Univer- 
sity, — in the first instance, to prevent the professor 
from resigning ; and, in the second, to hold Dr. Fisher 
against the new allurement in the direction of College 
Hill, Mass. He gives me the following : — 

" When I was preaching in Watertown, N. Y., I exchanged 
pulpits with Rev. S. Goodenough, who was then pastor of our 
Canton church. This occurred in the autumn of 1868. I was 
invited to make my home at Dr. Fisher's. During my brief stay 
he gave me an insight into the financial condition of the St. Law- 
rence University, and more especially the theological depart- 
ment, of which he was President. 

" ' I am fearful,' said he, i that we must close the doors of the 
college, for we have not sufficient income to pay the professors 
living salaries. Unless something is done, and immediately, 
we shall all hand in our letters of resignation.' 

" I said, hopefully, ' Dr. Fisher, there are enough Universal- 
ists of wealth in the city of New York to relieve the financial 
needs of this institution, and put the school into good working 
order, if they were only made acquainted with the real condi- 
tion.' Dr. Fisher looked earnestly into my eyes, and inquired, 
6 Do you really think what you have just stated 1 ' I replied, 
' I do.' In the next breath he said, 'It is then your duty to 
go on to New York. Will you not spare a few weeks and see 
what can be done V 4 1 will,' was my reply, 6 provided I can 
persuade my congregation to give me a leave of absence, and 
you will fill my pulpit.' 

" During a short interval, Dr. Fisher wrote Dr. Chapin, in- 
forming him of the financial embarrassment of the institution, 
which was a needful preparation for my coming. The leave of 
absence was granted by my society, and I went on to New 
York city with a determined will to overcome every obstruc- 
tion. I sought an interview with Dr. Chapin, and requested 



182 



MEMOIR 



OF EBEXEZER FISHER. 



him to give notice at the close of his Sunday morning service 
that Rev. Mr. Tonilinson, an agent of the St. Lawrence Uni- 
versity, would like to consult with such friends as were inter- 
ested in the educational work of our Church. The notice was 
given, and some eight or ten friends gathered in the central 
portion of the church, some standing and others sitting. 

" Dr. Chapin introduced me to the friends, and drew a let- 
ter from his side-pocket, saying that he had just received a 
letter from Dr. Fisher, which he would like to read ; after the 
letter was read, he requested me to make a statement to the 
friends, which I did briefly ; and, as soon as the last word was 
spoken, Mr. B. F: Rornaine said, with much feeling. i Put me 
down for five hundred dollars for immediate aid.' This was 
the dawn of hope. Before these few friends separated, it was 
decided to hold a Mass Educational Meeting in Dr. Chapin's 
church. Hon. Horace Greeley was invited by me to preside, 
and he most cordially consented to do so. 

u There was no one present at this meeting that made a 
more favorable impression upon the solid men present than Dr. 
Fisher. C. P. Huntington, Vice-President of the Central Pa- 
cific R. R., made special reference to him the next day when he 
passed over his thousand dollars : ; Dr. Fisher is the right man 
for your institution, and, with such a man at the head of the 
Theological School, it should not suffer for the want of a little 
money/ The Universalists of New York, Brooklyn, Roches- 
ter, Buffalo, and other places contributed liberally until more 
than fifty thousand dollars was contributed for the relief of the 
college. I had now been in the field little more than three 
months, and returned to my parish for real Christian work. 

" Unexpectedly an ; order' came from Rev. J. M. Pullman, 
Trustee, calling upon me to report at his office for duty. Like 
a good soldier, I obeyed, and respectfully bowed to my superior 
and inquired, ' What is your will 1 ' He said that ' Dr. Fisher 
will resign his position, unless his salary is made secure by an 
additional endowment of ten thousand dollars/ (This was oc- 



MINOR CRISES. 



183 



casioned by the call from Tufts.) I said, 1 Dr. Fisher is justi- 
fied iu taking this position, for he has never been half paid 
for his services, and it is high time that he laid aside something 
for a rainy day/ Bro. Pullman inquired, ' If I believed the ad- 
ditional ten thousand dollars could be obtained 1 9 I replied, 
c That there were five men in this city that must answer this 
question. , I was ' ordered ' to see the five men and report. 

" Directly I went to ISTo. 21 Spruce Street (to George A. 
Dockstader), and stated briefly the necessity of increasing the 
endowment set apart for the support of Dr. Fisher. ' Well/ 
said he, ' I am a Fisher man, and at the present time it seems 
that he is essential to the success of the institution : I will give 
five thousand dollars.' I could hardly contain myself. I then 
went directly to F. C. Havemeyer, who gave one thousand dol- 
lars. B. F. Romaine gave one thousand dollars. Now I was 
prepared to report. The balance was contributed by a few 
friends in Buffalo. A. C. Moore and Solomon Drullard and 
others responded liberally, which enabled me to return to my 
good people in Watertown." 

I here record an incident. Dr. Chapin at the meet- 
ing held at his church just referred to made a thrilling 
appeal to men of wealth : ' £ Give in the time of present 
need : do not give the encouragement of c a prospec- 
tive gravestone.'" The next day I met Mr. P. T. 
Barnum. In his peculiar way of coming to a point, he 
said: u Dr. Chapin hit me last night. That c pros- 
pective gravestone' meant mine, though he did not 
know it. I had put something in my will for that Can- 
ton school, but, after getting that hit, I have taken it 
out, and made it over without waiting to die." After- 
wards he said to me: " Chapin has a strange faculty 



184 



MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



for hitting the nail on the head. I cannot forget that 
4 prospective gravestone.' " He alluded to it again 
when, in the Centennial year of the Universalist church, 
he gave a large sum to the Murray Fund, as the Cen- 
tennial Fund was called : " Better now," said he, " than 
in my 4 prospective gravestone ' ! 33 

The last of financial contingencies ever to be suffered 
by Dr. Fisher was a thing of the past. He had hence- 
forth nothing to disturb him in his professional situa- 
tion. The future was all clear. 



WITHIN THE SCHOOL. 



185 



CHAPTER XV. 

WITHIN THE SCHOOL. 

Discipline. — No Palliation for Sin. — An Example of Eeproof. — 
Method with the Class. — No Mercy in Criticism. — Yet always 
Paternal. — Students get used to it. — Preaching for Criticism. — 
The Manner of Criticism. — The Teacher as exacting of Himself. 
— He always "got the Lesson. " — The Discipline of Example. 

T TURN for a moment to that which can hardly be 
described by details, — the method pursued by the 
teacher, and the discipline he administered within the 
school. I speak of discipline. A school which did not 
admit of this, or necessitate it, would be a misnomer. 
If ministers are men, students for the ministry must come 
under the same category. The mere circumstance that 
a young man contemplates so responsible an office as the 
Christian ministry, does not imply that in all his ways 
his spirit and acts will fully accord with the precepts 
of the Gospel he intends to preach. The head of a 
Theological School will have occasion to admonish ; un- 
happily, at times, to cast out. Dr. Fisher was the most 
lenient of men towards every thing except sin. Faults 
of passion, indiscretions of speech, and the foibles 
which imply weakness rather than deliberate wicked- 
ness, he could treat with due allowance. But for the evil 



186 MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 

intent he had no palliating words. He would not be 
instrumental in putting into the ministry any man w T hom 
he deemed capable of conduct that might bring disgrace 
upon the sacred calling. Always his ambition was to 
make Christian ministers. To that end he admonished 
if there was occasion for warning, more careful of the 
moral than even of the intellectual nature. He pre- 
ferred the good minister to the great one, except in 
the sense that no one is great unless he be good. It 
was inevitable that occasionally he would be compelled 
to resort to decisive, perhaps severe, measures. From 
the painful duty he never flinched. 

At times it would appear evident that the student had 
mistaken the calling which he had elected, or else that 
he must thoroughly change his spirit and manner before 
he could hope for usefulness in the sacred office. 

Human nature was the same at Canton as in all 
other communities. The President at Canton had made 
the discovery that oddities of tone and manner, even 
undisguised eccentricities, provided they were not ex- 
pressive of vicious proclivities, were no ground of dis- 
couragement. The age of twenty, or thereabouts, was 
hardly a key to the character of the same person at 
thirty. The teacher, therefore, usually tried discipline 
before expulsion. He always wanted to save : for 
the moment, he destro} r ed to make alive again. But 
he was faithful. He never spared the foible, however 
tender he may have felt towards the person. Reproof, 
rebuke, warning, were never diluted with sentimentality. 



WITHIN THE SCHOOL. 



187 



The scalpel went to the quick ; and, if the subject suf- 
fered to the end of amendment, he still suffered. In 
this I but transcribe and condense what many of 
the graduates of Canton have told me, — in some in- 
stances, gratefully telling a personal experience. The 
statement of a disinterested spectator — one fully com- 
petent to appreciate the spirit, intent, and method of the 
teacher — will better communicate to the reader the dis- 
cipline that was observed in the Canton School. The 
Rev. Mr. Goodrich gives me the following : — 

" It was a practice on every Wednesday for certain members 
of the Senior and Middle classes to preach. The hearing and 
criticism of the Seniors were the work of Professor Fisher, save 
when, at his request, I relieved him of the task. It was hut seldom 
that I could be present when Professor Fisher was in charge, as 
my own classes occupied my time. Occasionally, however, some 
of my classes would meet at an earlier hour in the afternoon, 
and allow me to retire from my recitation-room, and, in such a 
case, I would step into the chapel. I well recollect with how 
much acumen and judgment my colleague would criticise the 
discourses that were read. 

" One instance comes to my memory which will illustrate 
his fidelity. A new student had come to the school, who 
entered somewhat in advance. He had prepared a discourse 
probably before coining to Canton, and was in travail to be de- 
livered of it. In spirit and expression it was in the vein of 
the come-outer sermons that used to be in vogue thirty years 
ago. The elocution of the student was so peculiar as to pro- . 
voke a smile ; but laughter was awed into silence by amaze- 
ment. After the discourse was finished, the students, as was 
their wont, expressed their opinions on the matter and manner, 
and then Professor Fisher took the case in hand. For fifteen 



188 



MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



or twenty minutes, he animadverted on the sermon with calm 
severity that yet seemed merciless. He put the question to the 
student, 8 Why do you wish to enter the ministry, if you en- 
tertain such convictions about ministers as you have expressed ] 
You have depicted them as a band of time-servers ; you speak 
of them as suppressing the deepest convictions of their souls, 
lest they offend some rich or influential members of their 
parishes. If this is the case, why do you crave their com- 
panionship ? Are you sure that you will have so much more 
manliness and heroism than they, that you will never falter ] 
Do you suppose that you are going to convert people to magna- 
nimity by roughly assailing them ] Are you Christian in your 
manner of expression \ If I have read the Xew Testament 
aright, our Lord's manner was marked by sympathy. I know 
that he oft used strong language, and could sharply 'rebuke, 
but beneath and behind all his words there was compassionate 
love. In your discourse, there were scornful contempt and 
bitter upbraiding ; but I doubt whether we can find scorn ex- 
pressed in any of the utterances of Christ.' 

" Of course, I felt the justice of Professor Fisher's criticisms, 
but I could not help pitying the unfortunate student. I was 
not surprised to learn that he kept his bed all the next day. 
My colleague half regretted that he had talked so disparagingly; 
but, as the young man soon left the school and began to preach, 
Professor Fisher felt thankful that he had dealt with him so 
faithfully. 

" Of course, I need not speak to you of the rich humor that 
occasionally marked Professor Fisher's instructions. I recall 
one instance in which it had ample scope. The students had 
a debating society or two, and the professors frequently attended 
their meetings. On one evening, the subject of spiritualism 
came up, and one or two of the students were disposed to treat 
its claims, not merely with lenity, but with favor. The pro- 
fessor's spirit however, like Paul's at Athens, was stirred 
within him ; and, after disposing of the arguments advanced, 



WITHIN THE SCHOOL. 



189 



he treated the whole matter with unsparing ridicule. While 
most of us enjoyed the pat comparisons and allusions, we went 
to our homes laughing at the absurdities that he had pointed 
out, and admiring the racy humor which had exploded the 
crudities that were puzzling or deceiving feebler minds." 

I have been in Canton on several commencement occa- 
sions, which gave me opportunities to witness as many 
examinations of classes. They were conducted by the 
Instructor, visitors taking the privilege to ask questions, 
if so disposed, after the teacher's work was through. 
I had also tw T o clays' opportunities to be present on the 
ordinary occasions when only the customary exercises 
and services were conducted. This was about fourteen 
years after I had met Dr. Fisher in the Essex Minis- 
terial Circle ; but the manner of the teacher, his thor- 
oughness, the relentless searching and testing of his 
questions, at once took me back to those earlier days 
when in that circle he sat the master in our little Israel. 
Of course, the subject-matter was different. In the 
circle, it was a critic dealing with ideas ; in the school, 
it was the instructor dealing with facts, or with thoughts 
as expressed in the text-book. But the instant apprehen- 
sion of inaccurate statement, of failure to reclothe with 
precision the matter of the lesson, and the steadiness 
with which the student was held to essential points, 
vividly renewed the earlier memories. 

In the chapel, when the young men preached for 
criticism, — never to an audience that inspired, — the 
renewal of the Circle clays was complete. If there 
was a " lame metaphor ; " or if matter that belonged to 



190 MEMOIR OF E BENE ZEE FISHER. 



"thirdly" had got into "secondly;" or if there was 
looseness, or ambiguity of statement, — the defect in 
ever}^ case was faithfully noted, and the correction im- 
pressively made. I noted that the " subject" had made 
the discovery that it was absurd to indulge in 4 6 hurt 
feelings," even in sensitiveness to the most searching 
and emphatic correction. Having " got used to it," 
the young man almost relished the infliction ! It could 
never escape his thought that the relentless critic was 
his friend, and the paternal tone of censure — it may 
be of reproof — but strengthened the confidence and 
the love with which he always approached the President 
of the school. 

But what he required of others, he exacted of himself. 
For the twenty-one years of his labors in the school, he 
always " got the lesson." No matter how familiar it 
became to him, from teaching and reciting, he never 
went to his class without first renewing the subject and 
the facts in his own mind. He was, therefore, always 
full of the subject. He had every part of it at easy and 
instant command. And, in the manner of teaching, 
there was no appearance of " speaking by the book," — 
he spoke from his own mind and character. Scores of 
his students have told me the equivalent of this. But 
the general fact was not out of my thought for an in- 
stant in the few hours that I was a spectator of his 
method. I doubt not that this example of personal 
fidelity, the magnetism of his manner, was chief among 
the disciplinary forces that made him the ruler in his 
school, even when there was no appearance of ruling. 



WITHOUT THE SCHOOL. 



191 



CHAPTER XVI. 

WITHOUT THE SCHOOL. 

Public Spirit. — Preaching in the Vicinity of Canton. — Attending 
Conventions and Associations. — Love of Science. — Interest in 
General Education. — Patriotic Speeches. — The Confidence of 
the Public. 

T~^VR. FISHER was born to be a public man. In 
large degree, he was charged with a public spirit. 
He felt a deep interest in all movements pertaining to 
the reformation of society and the general welfare of 
humanity. His chief interest, after he came to Canton, 
was in the Theological School, and he never allowed 
other matters to come between himself and his pro- 
fessional duties. Still he did not see occasion to restrict 
his labors and sympathies wholly to the school. He 
preached very frequently in the towns around Canton. 
For several years he supplied the pulpit in Potsdam, 
where he* was greatly beloved, as he was elsewhere. 
He preached in other places, and took a deep interest 
in promoting the cause of Christian truth wherever he 
could make his influence felt. He was often called 
upon to officiate at funerals and weddings, and he knew 
how to comfort the mourner, and with becoming zest 
join in the festive joys of the social circle. 



192 



MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



He attended the General Convention and the State 
Conventions and the Associations whenever he was 
able to do so. His voice was always heard at these 
gatherings, in counsel, warning, rebuke, or encourage- 
ment. He gained much in earnestness and effective 
eloquence by coming to Canton, pursuing his studies, 
and engaging in the discussion of sacred themes with 
the professors and students. In his address to the first 
graduating class, he remarked that he felt more like a 
student with them than a teacher, for he, with them, 
had studied the themes which had been discussed for 
the three years. 

He was versed in natural science, and he loved to 
lecture upon some of its departments, especially in its 
bearing upon religious truth. By invitation, he many 
times repeated a lecture on u The Compensations of 
Nature," which was always received with great favor. 

He was interested in educational matters generally. 
He took an active part in consolidating the school dis- 
tricts of Canton village. He introduced the graded 
sj'stem into the schools, whereb}' an entire revolution 
was wrought in the modes of instruction. 

His services were frequently sought for at the Fourth 
of Jul}' gatherings, and in political conventions, and in 
political campaigns. In his addresses on these occa- 
sions, he always rose above mere party considerations, 
and endeavored to elevate the minds of his hearers into 
a more healthy atmosphere than that which usually sur- 
rounds the political meeting or caucus. He was always 



WITHOUT THE SCHOOL. 



193 



welcome in the meetings of the County Teachers' As- 
sociation, and temperance gatherings. He was emi- 
nently practical in his mode of dealing with matters of 
moral and social reform. His logical power and com- 
mon-sense appeals and homely illustrations told with 
wonderful effect. For many years, till his death, he 
was a member of the Local or Managing Board of 
the Potsdam Normal School, and the Principal, Rev. 
Dr. M. McVicar, acknowledged that he was of eminent 
service. 

He often spoke in the very spirit of patriotic elo- 
quence during the Civil War, and he did much to en- 
courage the languishing minds of the people. Thus his 
influence was felt far and wide, bej'ond the walls of the 
Universit}^. He was an earnest student of politics and 
political economy, and he frequently lectured on those 
subjects. The people of St. Lawrence Count}' had 
great confidence in him as a safe expounder of them. 
Far and near, he was talked of as a candidate for mem- 
ber of Congress and other high political positions. But 
his mission was that of founding an institution, and 
from that no temptation could allure him. That was 
principal : all else was incidental. In that service he 
literally died. 



194 



MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



WITHIN THE HOME. 



Homesickness of Students. — Especially on festive Days. — First 
Thanksgiving at Canton. — Thought of the "Boys." — Mrs. 
Fisher's Project. — "Adopted Sons" for the Day. — Reunion 
of Students. — Mrs. Fisher's constant Care for the Students. — 
Fitting up of Students' Rooms. — Sick Students cared for at her 
House. — The Effect in keeping the Students. — Students' Tes- 
timonies. — Rev. Mr. Goodrich's Statement. 



XDER this head. I give a brief chapter, which, in 



its importance, has hardly a secondary place. I 
am to record what, in not a few instances, almost 
turned the scale in pledging the success of the school. 
Those who have not forgotten the period of youth — 
who can forget it ? — need not be told that the entrance 
upon new duties, far from home, and among strangers, 
seldom fails to bring the sickness of heart under which 
the average resolution not unfrequently breaks down. 
A military man. in command of a regiment in our recent 
war. assured me that homesickness was treated by the 
physicians as real sickness, and that, at times, it was so 
threatening that they prescribed for it ! He told me 
that, in one instance, the report of the scouts that the 
enemy was approaching sent a thrill of relief through 




WITHIN THE HOME. 



195 



the regiment, in that, horrid as the prospect was, it di- 
verted the minds of new recruits from the greater hor- 
ror, — thought of the distant home from which they 
were compulsorily detained. Under any circumstances, 
however favoring, a young man's first year at a distant 
school is apt to be one' of sore trial. And this is pe- 
culiarly distressing on festive days, such as Christmas, 
Thanksgiving, and the New Year. At such times, so 
crowded with happy associations, the mind will revert 
to the old homestead and the gathering of parents, 
brothers, sisters and friends, about the festive board. 

Dr. Fisher and his wife had known by experience the 
loneliness of a first Thanksgiving at Canton ; that 
is, in any place before new friendships and companion- 
ships have been formed. I have a distinct recollec- 
tion that Mrs. Fisher, in describing the experience, in 
substance said : ' ' The first Thanksgiving we spent in 
Canton was the most lonely one that Mr. Fisher and 
I ever spent together. We took our places at table 
with our three children, and I was so homesick and 
lonely, having always been accustomed to dining with a 
table-full of friends on that anniversary." The memory 
of that loneliness led her to think of the "boys" in 
the lonely building. If, with her family, the memory 
of other days was so painful, what must it be to them ? 
And, with the quickness of woman's thought, she deter- 
mined that for Thanksgiving the 6 ' boys " should be her 
sons. She proposed to her husband that the students 
be " adopted " for the day, and make the family reunion 



196 MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



at her table. In reply, he left the project wholly with 
her, as the care would come chiefly upon her, at the 
same time giving a more than willing consent. 

Accordingly, on the return of the next Thanksgiv- 
ing, she began the u adoption" in due form, and gave 
a dinner to both the Faculty and students. The 
next year she divided the company, and had the stu- 
dents on Thanksgiving and the Faculty and other 
friends on New Year. And for the succeeding 
twenty years Mrs. Fisher's Thanksgiving and New 
Year were almost as much of an " institution " as the 
school itself. 

I had learned from many students so much of these 
annual occasions, so much of the gratitude for the 
thoughtfulness which they evinced, and of the influence 
they had in giving success in the Canton struggles, that 
I could not have failed to make some note of them in 
this history. But the kindness of former students, and 
their vivid recollections of the happy anniversary, come 
greatly to my aid. In recording his own experience, 
one has given that of other students scattered over the 
entire period of Dr. Fisher's connection with the 
school excepting the first year. He writes me: u At 
first the invitation was to a Thanksgiving dinner, — • 
later to a Thanksgiving ' turkey supper.' The distinc- 
tion was not wholly one of name, for at the dinner only 
students were invited, but to the supper each student 
had the liberty of bringing one, and that one was quite 
sure to be — I will not finish the sentence ! " 



WITHIN THE HOME. 



197 



One student of the earlier time makes for me the fol- 
lowing lively record — that of the ' 4 dinner " epoch : — 

" After devotional exercises at church or College chapel, 
the members of the school went to his home, where they were 
met by the Doctor and Mrs. Fisher with that hearty welcome 
which could put the most diffident at ease. At dinner, the 
long table, extending the length of the dining-room, would be 
loaded with the substantial and delicacies which New Eng- 
enders are accustomed to provide on that day. Around this 
table, with the Doctor and Mrs. Fisher presiding, every mem- 
ber of the school who was in Canton would be present, together 
with a sprinkling of ladies, if there happened to be a lady in 
the school. 

" After invoking the Divine blessing, so reverently said as to 
awake the soul of thanks from all, the various viands were 
tested, until stomachs, disciplined by the common fare of col- 
lege board, had fully shown their capacity for the task set be- 
fore them by the culinary skill of Mrs. Fisher and her attendants. 
Then followed what Dr. Holmes would call ' the feast of reason 
and the freshet of soul,' in the carrying out of the programme 
previously prepared' by the Committee of Arrangements. The 
Literary Banquet was the quintessence of student brain under 
full inspiration of the honor of being selected to respond to a 
toast on that occasion. The listeners were not disposed to let 
their critical acumen mar this feast, hence the wit was accepted 
as clear-cut, the sentiment just right, and the poetry spark- 
ling and inspiriting as champagne, about which these embryo- 
preachers knew probably nothing, except from the lips of others. 
There was always one speech which made the day memorable, 
— the words of wisdom, of helpfulness, and of good cheer that 
came from the grand Christian philosopher, whose large heart 
would overflow with genial good-humor on the occasion. The 
evening was sure to be enjoyable to all tastes. When the twi- 
light deepened, and the rooms were lighted, a variety of 



198 MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



entertainments would be successively introduced. For the 
amusements of the evening, all were much indebted to the pre- 
arrangement and untiring efforts of Mrs. Fisher and her daugh- 
ter. At times, when something particularly funny convulsed 
the company with laughter, the good Doctor would pass his 
forefinger and thumb across his upper lip, by that gesture 
which every student so well remembers, as if to stroke away 
the laugh waiting to come, and which he did not always suc- 
ceed in suppressing. Sometimes he would read an amusing 
sketch, or a choice poem. His fine appreciation of the humor- 
ous and of the beautiful, rendered in his deep rich voice, 
would be a treat indeed to his listeners. And, usually before 
going home, the company would gravitate to the Doctor's 
study, and there listen for a time to his analysis of some author, 
or some book ; a privilege not to be forgotten, but held as an 
inestimable remembrance. With regret, all saw the hour ap- 
proach for leaving the delightful home and its hospitable in- 
mates. In most social gatherings, the guests depart at different 
times. Xot so here : all went away at the same time ; this 
party, like the 4 one-horse shay,' broke up all at once. 

" It would be difficult to crowd more genuine hospitality, 
profit, and pleasure into one day, than was furnished to the 
theological students at the house of Dr. Fisher on Thanksgiv- 
ing Day." 

Another student of a later date has prepared for my 
use a sketch that adds greatly to the interest this chap- 
ter must awaken : — 

" The Thanksgiving dinner at Canton has always been a 
'red-letter day' in the monotonous round of study and recita- 
tion. The interest in the occasion was apparent for weeks be- 
fore its arrival. The students were sure that the invitations 
would be forthcoming. They never failed but once in the whole 



WITHIN THE HOME. 



199 



period of twenty-one years, after the first ; and at that time 
the loss of the invitation to Thanksgiving was more than com- 
pensated by an invitation to the wedding of the daughter of 
Dr. and Mrs. Fisher, which took place on the day immediately 
preceding. 

" The students were so sure of their invitations that they 
met weeks before to prepare some entertainment for the occa- 
sion, such as charades, music, etc. And, finally, on the Mon- 
day preceding Thanksgiving, after the usual morning prayers 
in the chapel, — which I fear were not as fervently joined in by 
the students as usual, — a hush of expectancy would fall upon 
the students, while Dr. Fisher, with a peculiarly pleasant look, 
would say : ' Mrs. Fisher sends compliments,' — always in- 
cluding in the invitation the privilege to each student of 
' bringing a lady with him.' One year it was humorously 
hinted that the two lady students might bring gentlemen if 
they saw fit ! 

" The students preserved a dignified demeanor till they got 
outside the chapel door, when a general congratulatory smile 
would pass round as they went to their several recitations. 

" Mrs. Fisher never sat at the table, but looked to see that 
her guests were thoroughly provided for. When all were sat- 
isfied, and I fear more than satisfied, they adjourned to the 
parlor. The tables were quickly removed, and then a few 
hours were spent in social conversation, intermingled with 
whatever entertainment the students had prepared. At last 
the students would take their leave of host and hostess, feeling 
as though there was nothing to live for except the memories of 
that evening and the hopes of another to come next year, — 
sure for all except the Seniors who graduated before the occasion 
returned, who as they left would wonder with sadness who 
would provide for their next Thanksgiving. 

" These entertainments were charming to all, even to those 
who were surrounded by home privileges. But one can im- 
agine what a keen pleasure it must have been to those who 



200 MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



were shut up in their lonely rooms continually. The great 
charm of the evening lay in the fact that every thing was 
home-like. The Doctor and Mrs. Fisher would enter into the 
amusements and conversation as heartily and enjoy it as keenly 
apparently as any of us." 

The several communications that have been sent to 
me, in regard to these annual occasions, come from 
different parts of the country, and each writer will here 
know the contents of others for the first time. I do not, 
therefore, regret that in regard to the essentials each in 
some matters repeats another. I give another brief 
statement : — 

M On these annual occasions, his students all about him as 
his guests, and with the influence of the day consoling all, Dr. 
Fisher is remembered in one of his best moods. That genial 
humor which those who had the privilege of seeing him day by 
day knew he possessed in large measure, was given full play, 
and the hearty laugh and merry jest we can hear now as they 
echo from the happy past. A long table extended through the 
dining and sitting rooms, which occupied the west side of the 
house ; and about that table Ave all gathered, and, after the rev- 
erent and thankful word had been said, partook of the goodly 
meal provided by Mrs. Fisher, who always graced the day with 
her cordial and friendly presence. 

" After the appetites of all were satisfied, toasts were read and 
responded to by some of the students for the classes and by the 
Doctor for the school ; and I call to mind that then pleasant 
jokes and true, sober words fell from his lips to cheer or 
guide us. We can see him now, standing there in manly 
strength, yet with the twinkle in his eye which we who were 
near him have often seen ; and we felt toward him not only 
the respect due to the master mind, but the friendliness won 



WITHIN THE HOME. 



201 



by the warm human heart. Yes, among the many memories 
which we cherish is that of Dr. Fisher and his wife, on Thanks- 
giving Day, among their ' boys/ 

"But, it is simple justice to add, these joyful Thanksgiving 
gatherings, arduous as was the care they brought to the Presi- 
dent's wife, were but a fraction of the large service she ren- 
dered the school by her motherly care of the ' boys,' as she 
tenderly called them. At the opening of the school, when 
there were only a half-dozen students and one teacher, and no 
apparatus, library, or conveniences ; when these students came 
from comfortable homes and the society of friends to board in 
the bare, cheerless college-rooms, — had it not been for Mrs. 
Fisher's energy in enlisting the aid of the Canton ladies, and 
adding to the bare rooms a certain home-like cheerfulness, many 
of the students must inevitably have left. From the very first, 
she endeavored to become personally acquainted with the stu- 
dents. If one was * homesick ' on his arrival, she took him to 
her own home, where he soon recovered his courage. On sev- 
eral occasions, students, driven by unendurable homesickness, 
have packed their trunks to go home, when she, by her untir- 
ing energy, persuaded them to try a while longer ; and so she 
finally induced them to remain." 

A former student, having direct knowledge of the 
facts, writes me : — 

" A great many of the students, when sick, were invited to her 
home, and were cared for as tenderly as they could have been by 
their own mothers, until their health had improved sufficiently 
to warrant a safe return to the school. Some of them have 
been under her care for several weeks. . I recall one who stayed 
a fortnight under her care, and then, against her advice, insisted 
upon returning to the school, where, taken sick again, he 
returned to her house for another fortnight. She nursed an- 
other through a raging fever that kept him confined to his 



202 MEMOIR OF EBEXEZER FISHER. 



room in her own house for three weeks ; ofttimes, in his de- 
lirium, she being the only one able to control him. The minor 
attentions for the comfort of the students are almost number- 
less. Many of them would go to her for sympathy in their 
troubles and advice in their perplexities. The confidence they 
had in her advice was abundantly proven by the frequency 
with which it was solicited. I think of one who gave his life 
for his country. He left all his private papers in her charge, 
with directions for their disposal in case of his death. In short, 
to describe all she has done for the Canton School would be to 
give a history of a far greater portion of it than any one of the 
' outside world ' would suppose. There is many a minister gone 
from Canton who, if asked what kept him there, would reply 
that, next to the great teacher at the head, it was Mrs. Fisher's 
efforts in his behalf." 

It means much that for no department of this Memoir 
have recollections been so promptly and numerously 
proffered. I regret that my limits forbid the extending 
of this chapter. For an obvious reason, I specialize 
an interesting memory from a blind student, for which 
I have no space. 



FRIENDS OF THE INSTITUTION, 



203 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

FRIENDS OF THE INSTITUTION. 

Primary Conditions in founding Institutions. — That at Canton 
followed the Rule. — Friends at the Outset. — Potent Influence 
of Dr. Fisher. — Reticence of Donors. — The larger Gifts. — 
Dr. Lee's Statement. — The Widows' Mites. 

TN all enterprises which depend on large money gifts, 
the preliminary task is the difficult and trying one, — 
that of getting public attention. This is not done by 
circulars, newspaper editorials, and the presentation of 
subscription books. These indeed are indispensable ; 
in the lack of these nothing will be secured. But, in 
addition to formal and public appeals, there must be 
an immense amount of personal interviewing, personal 
explaining, personal entreating. It is idle to go to a 
rich man with the sententious statement that the enter- 
prise is a good one. That which is to make a man take 
out his purse must be worked into his convictions 
and his sympathies. He must be assured that the pro- 
ject is really needed, that it is feasible, and that there 
are good probabilities of its success. No man will 
pour the golden waters into what he fears may prove 
a sieve. Hence the first step is the creating a proper 



204 



MEMOIR OF EBEXEZER FISHER. 



public sentiment. That end secured, the result seldom 
fails. 

This history has given many examples in proof that 
the founding of the Canton Theological School was in 
accordance with the general law. To make it succeed, 
no stone was left unturned ; and the number of stones 
to be turned was very great. But. from the first, there 
were friends of the movement. They began with hun- 
dreds, and they in due time came forward with thou- 
sands. The great name of Ebenezer Fisher was a 
tower of strength. It gave confidence. It was patent 
to sight that such a man was not in Canton without 
strong and sufficient reasons. Parties who were almost 
persuaded no sooner saw him than persuasion became 
conviction, and conviction led to corresponding action. 

The fact is not strange, it is characteristic, that the 
heavier donors of the school had been reticent and unob- 
trusive. They had even shunned publicity. Dr. Fisher 
literally teased his Salem friend for his consent to make 
his gift public: the fact was needed as an - exam- 
ple to others. 5 ' Through the Rev. J. H. Hartzell, D.D.. 
of Buffalo, as a confederate. I have by a strategy, 
which I here confess, got at the facts in regard to 
the gifts of his parishioner, a Mr. A. C. Moore, — a 
total to the Theological School of near thirty thousand 
dollars. I ought to add that half as much more has 
been donated by him to various charities. The inspira- 
tion of Jacob Hansen's first offer I have described. 
The almost startling gifts of John Craig. I have also 



FRIENDS OF THE INSTITUTION. 205 

noted. Of course, the widows' mites are not forgotten, 
though the number is too great for individual mention. 
But some record of the larger gifts I have deemed essen- 
tial to the proper completeness of this history. On my 
solicitation, Dr. J. S. Lee gladly collates for me the 
following statement : — 

" I give you this in regard to the larger donors. Jacob Har- 
sen, of the Bleecker Street Church, New York, paid $5,000, Oct. 6, 
1858. The Bleecker Street Church gave some $30,000 in all for 
the University. Among those in New York, and elsewhere, who 
gave $1,000 each, or more, were George A. Dockstader, $5,000; 
for whom Dr. Fisher's professorship was named. He gave 
$100 a year for several years to get a teacher of elocution, and 
various other sums of which I have no definite knowledge now. 
Silas C. Herring, New York, who gave $1,000 at first, purchased 
Dr. Credner's and Rev. S. C. Lo^ eland's Libraries, paid $300 or 
$400 each year for the purchase of books for many years, paid 
$5,500 (half) towards the erection of a fire-proof building for 
the Library, and was really one of the most generous of the 
earlier donors. F. C. Havemeyer, Thomas Wallace, M. R. 
Halstead, N. Van Nostrand, Mary Gunn, and Mary Cook, of 
New York, and L. A. Goodnow, Watertown, New York, made 
liberal gifts. A. C. Moore, of Buffalo, gave at different times, 
for specific objects, various sums ; and, finally, without soli- 
citation and unexpectedly to the trustees, he endowed my 
own professorship with $25,000 in May, 1874. John Craig, of 
Rochester, left in his will $50,000 to the University, which was 
promptly paid over. Alvinza Hayward, of San Francisco, Cal., 
gave Dr. Conkey, President of the Board of Trustees, who 
visited him, a check for $30,000, as a token of his regard for 
Canton, where he was brought up, — received June 10, 1874. — 
The influence of Dr. Conkey was felt in many timely offerings. 
Allen Lyman, of Stockholm, New York, gave $1,000, and his 



206 



MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



sister, Mrs. Lorena L. Bicknell, gave $10,000 in 1874. Jere- 
miah Davis, of Brier Hill, New York, gave §1,000. Lester 
Taylor, of Fly Creek, New York, has recently given by will, 
$2,000. Bev. W. S. Balch was a generons donor, for he gave 
much valuable time and secured large bequests, and in rais- 
ing the balance of the $25,000, in 1865, charged only his ex- 
penses, a little over $300, and declined the ten per cent, which 
the trustees agreed to pay him. A large number of ministers 
and laymen gave $100 to $500 each, whose names I do not 
give/' 

To the above, I add in form — what I have elsewhere 
included — the six thousand dollars (besides occasional 
smaller sums) from Charles A. Kopes, of Salem, Mass. 
I also note Hon. P. T. Bamum's gift of seven thou- 
sand dollars the Centennial year of the denomination : 
one-half was for the St. Lawrence University. I may 
add that he also made generous additions to the library. 
The "struggles for existence" were, therefore, not in 
vain. Along with the many whom I cannot name, 
who would naturally shrink from the publicity of the 
announcement, the men and women above named have 
been not alone the financial, but the sjTnpathetic, 
friends of the school, which now rests secure. 



CLOSING YEARS. 



207 



CHAPTER XIX. 

CLOSING YEARS. 

The Evening of Dr. Fisher's Days. — Happy Memories. — Number 
of his Scholars. — Graduates and Non-Graduates. — Great Suc- 
cess. — Cheerful Letter. — Death of Ellen Estelle. — A severe 
Blow. — Tests the Firmness of Faith. — Divine Submission. — 
Rev. 0. F. Safford's Recollection. 

TT is a profound satisfaction to the many friends of 
this faithful teacher and guide that the evening . 
of Dr. Fisher's days was serene, peaceful, happy. The 
endowment of his school up to the line of permanency 
and an assured usefulness, giving the ground of ex- 
pectation that other benefactions would in due time 
greatly extend its sphere and its facilities ; the complete 
success of every one of the special enterprises which 
had occasioned him so much of solicitude and extra- 
professional toil ; the palpable and enthusiastic love all 
his students, past and present, bore him ; the reverent 
esteem of neighbors, even to distant towns, irre- 
spective of sect or party ; the consciousness that his 
great experiment had ripened to fruition, — all com- 
bined to give content and cheerfulness to the closing 
days of a toil that was never to be suspended up to the 
last hour upon earth. He had been successful. I 



208 MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 

hardly anticipate, when I make the record, that, in- 
cluding the class of seven which graduated the June 
following his death (an interval of less than four 
months) , the number of students who had been under 
Dr. Fisher's instruction made a total of two hundred 
and one, of which number one hundred and six gradu- 
ated in due form, and ninety-five were non-graduates. 
Most of the non-graduates had been in the school more 
than a year, and many of them two years and longer. 
In view of the many difficulties surmounted, the success 
was great. Through great tribulation, the consecrated 
teacher had entered upon the land that so long was 
one of simple promise. He knew that he had been 
successful, and the consciousness made him cheerful, 
while it moved him to grateful acknowledgment to his 
Father and his God. And all who loved him, who re- 
vere his memory, are grateful in view of the record. 

I am, however, describing his professional career, — 
the close of that career. A precious letter to his Salem 
friend, Mr. Eopes, makes known the sunlight that cast 
a halo over these brighter days, in a tone and phrase 
very different from the many letters extracts of which I 
have given. Under date, Canton, April 4, 1869, I13 
writes (I give an extract only) : — 

" My health is very good this winter. My eyes are not yet 
well, but are so much improved that I can use them four or 
five hours in a day. My school is going on well. My number 
of scholars is thirty-one, and I think them a very promising 
body of young men. I am glad to say that we have a third 



CLOSING YEARS. 



209 



professor just now added to the school, — Eev. J. S. Lee, — who 
has recently returned from Europe. This is a great satisfac- 
tion to me, for our work will, I hope, be much better done, and 
our labor will not be so severe. 

" I have thus, after eleven years, reached the point which, in 
that direction, I had fixed upon as the object of my labors and 
hopes, and I give thanks to God that he has granted me to see 
this success. Day after to-morrow will be eleven years since 
we moved to Canton. They have been years of self-denial 
and hard toil, wearing oftentimes to mind and body. I have 
been many times weary, but not often despondent, nor ever 
beyond a few hours at a time. Your generosity shed a new 
light of hope and courage on the darkest hour of my dif- 
ficulties, and opened the way to this present success, for which 
may God bless and reward yon. And may this school, thus 
established, be a means of promoting the true life and love of 
the religion of our Master among men ; and, if it be so, then 
indeed we may both count what we have given as so much good 
seed." 

In his own family, Dr. Fisher suffered but one do- 
mestic sorrow. This was a severe blow, but it only 
served to chasten his spirit, and reveal the strength of his 
Christian faith, and his entire submission to the Father's 
will. This stalwart, strong, massive soul had the ten- 
derness of a child ; and, though he had strength to bear 
up under affliction, he knew what it was to suffer. I 
have made record of the death of his youngest child, 
Ellen Estelle, at Canton, Feb. 4, 1861, at the age of six 
years. The joy of the father's heart, a presence that 
filled the home with sunshine, a promise of companion- 
ship as his years declined, suddenly taken away, the 

14 



210 



MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



paternal grief was not less than the maternal anguish, 
and Dr. Fisher's home was indeed the house of mourn- 
ing. But it was the Father above who afflicted him, 
and this man of faith bowed in trusting submission to a 
Higher Will and found peace. In the very discrimi- 
nating and just tribute to Dr. Fisher's memory, paid by 
the Kev. O. F. S afford, of Cambridge, Mass., at the 
memorial meeting in Boston, occurs this paragraph, — 
a gem among gems : — 

" Xo one not utterly unsusceptible could be long in his 
presence and not be made to feel that there is such a thing as 
a genuine Christian faith. The best external lesson of faith I 
ever learned he once taught me ; and it was a lesson without 
the need of words. During my stay at Canton, he lost a dearly 
loved daughter, a lovely little girl, who had been the light of 
his home. One wintry day, when there was snow on the 
ground and snow in the ah, I stood at the foot of the little 
grave, and Dr. Fisher, the bereaved father, stood at its head. 
When the little casket had been lowered, the father following 
it with his eyes, and the harsh gravel was cast upon it, there 
came a cloud upon his face, — a cloud of anguish, it may be of 
doubt and unreconciliation. A moment after, however, he in- 
stinctively turned his face upward ; the cloud gave place to a 
cheerful smile. It was as if he saw the sun above the wintry 
storm. The interpretation of this was plain : the Christian 
and the father briefly struggled together. The struggle was 
brief, for the Christian soon triumphed. Many times since 
have I seen the same smile in his face, and many times has it 
recalled to me his lesson of faith which he taught me without 
words." 



"LAST OF EARTH." 



211 



CHAPTER XX. 

"LAST OF EARTH." 

Never well. : — Increasing Illness. — Premonition. — Ever Ready for 
the Summons. — Sudden Death. — Dr. Lee's Announcement. — 
The wide-spread Sorrow. — Memorial Services at Salem, Nor- 
wood, and Buffalo. — Allusions to the Event in many Pulpits. — 
Action of Ministers at the Monday Meeting. — The Funeral Ser- 
vices. — Rev. A. Gunnison's Report. — Meeting of Students at 
the House. — Action of the Alumni. — " Fisher Memorial Build- 
ing," — Resolutions at the Ministers' Meeting. — Memorial Service 
in Boston. — A Denomination in Mourning. 

TN all the years of his work at Canton, Dr. Fisher 
knew that disease had a firm hold upon him. The 
stalwart frame, and the outward look of vigor and 
strength, but masked the enemy that was preying 
within. He always carried the consciousness that he 
was peculiarly liable to be cut down in a moment. The 
last time I saw him, a year before his death, I was so 
struck with his ruddy appearance, that I exclaimed, 
" Why, do you feel as well as you look? " His answer 
was, u No," and, putting his hand near his heart, he 
added, "at times there is something not just right 
here." But he did not describe the s}onptoms, and I 
thought it not well to ask questions. Some years before 



212 MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



his decease, he suffered a slight attack, which, if not 
paralytic, was suggestive of it ; and for a while his face 
showed some abnormal condition in the facial muscles. 
Then he was troubled with his eyes, and to spare them 
refrained from writing, Mrs. Fisher often acting as his 
amanuensis. The last } T ear of his life he made use of 
the type-writer, not so much to relieve his hands as his 
sight. He was not well. With health and strength 
enough for the full and earnest discharge of his duties, 
and by no means technically ill, he was far from having 
the vigor of sound health. But this troubled him not. 
His anxiety was to round out twenty-one years of ser- 
vice at the head of the school which he had literally 
made. Beyond that he was not at all solicitous. At 
any moment he was ready should his Lord call him to 
His rest. 

That moment approached. I shall never forget the 
emotion with which, on the morning of Friday, Feb. 
21, 1879, at the hour of eleven, I opened a despatch, 
which Mrs. Fisher had authorized should be sent me 
in her name. Without the remotest suspicion of the 
contents, in sad and impressive surprise, I read the 
words, " Dr. Fisher died this morning of heart com- 
plaint, while on his way to the school." He died sud- 
denly, with no immediate premonition, at about 8.30, 
a. m., just as he had reached the Seminary building. 
Dr. Lee, with a heavy heart, communicated the following 
to the denominational paper, the " Christian Leader," 
writing under date, Feb. 21 : — 



"LAST OF EARTHS 



213 



"With grief unutterable, I sit down to communicate to you 
the death of the President of our Theological School. Dr. 
Fisher started this morning to go to the College, as usual, to 
open the school at 8.45, and when he had nearly reached the 
door, he fell. A student near him raised him up, and asked 
him if he slipped. ' No/ he replied, 4 1 fainted/ and he 
again sank down. Several students near lifted him up, and 
carried him into one of the College rooms, when he gasped 
a few times and was dead ! Professors and students were 
gathered around him when he breathed his last. Two physi- 
cians were called immediately, who pronounced it a case of the 
heart disease. With this he had been troubled for a long time, 
and lived for years with the idea that he might be taken sud- 
denly away. Yet he had been able to perform his duties in 
the Theological School up to the time of his death. No pre- 
monitory symptoms indicated so sudden a termination of his 
labors. He heard recitations with his usual vigor yesterday, 
and last evening attended Dr. Weaver's conference and prayer 
meeting, and spoke freely. This morning he seemed as well 
as usual when he started for his daily labor, conversed with 
friends on the way, did some business, and then went on to- 
wards the College. He died, as he desired, with the harness 
on. He was faithful to the duties of his calling even unto 
the end." 

I need not add that on many minds and hearts the 
sad and startling intelligence made a profound impres- 
sion. All who knew Dr. Fisher, painfully felt that a 
giant had fallen. There was deep and wide-spread 
mourning in the Israel of the Universalist Church ; and 
the bereavement was felt far outside of sectarian boun- 
daries. Impromptu expressions of sorrow came from 
many lips. 



214 



MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



On the succeeding Sunday, memorial services were 
held in the churches at Salem and Norwood (formerly 
South Dedham), of which the deceased had in earlier 
years been the pastor. At the Salem church (I quote 
the " Christian Leader") " a portrait of the deceased 
was placed before the altar. Dr. E. C. Bolles, the pas- 
tor, read a selection of Scripture so pertinent that it 
almost seemed that the inspired pen saw the good man 
in prophetic vision. A most appropriate discourse was 
given, in which the work of Dr. Fisher in the Salem 
parish was faithfully recognized, and the specialty of 
his great mission at Canton was delineated." In Buf- 
falo, where Dr. Fisher had found great friends in the 
days of trial, the Universalist pastor, Rev. L. J. 
Fletcher, D.D., held a memorial service; and in his 
discourse he made a careful and extended analysis 
of the character and work of the deceased, paying 
a high tribute to his exalted worth. In very many 
Universalist churches the services on that Sunday 
morning were suggested by the solemn event. And 
of the many pastors who had revered the eminent 
dead as their former instructor, very few failed on 
that clay to remember their benefactor in praj^er and 
in meditation. 

The ministers of the Universalist churches of Boston 
and vicinity hold, every Monday morning, a Ministers' 
Meeting, at the rooms of the Universalist Publishing 
House, on which occasions they usually discuss some 
theme of doctrine or of method which pertains to their 



"LAST OF EARTHS 



215 



professional work. But, as they met on the Monday 
succeeding the sad news, but one thought and one 
theme absorbed every mind and heart. A committee 
was appointed to express the love and reverence which 
all the ministers bore to the memory of the dead. Dr. 
Sawyer, the chairman at the next meeting, March 3, 
submitted resolutions of appreciation, grateful recog- 
nition of eminent service to the church, and of con- 
dolence, which were unanimously approved. And a 
committee was also appointed to arrange a Memorial 
Service, which was held Wednesday evening, March 5, 
at Columbus Avenue Church. There was also a special 
call on the graduates of Canton who were present 
to take formal and appropriate action, which was 
done. Indeed, the theme which dominated every other 
on that Monday was the one suggested by the great 
sorrow in which all shared. 

The funeral service was held on the afternoon of 
Tuesda}', Feb. 25. The Rev. A. Gunnison, of Brook- 
lyn, a former student of Dr. Fisher, was present, and 
communicated to the " Christian Leader" a full report 
of the services. I quote and condense : — 

"It was to he expected," Mr. Gunnison wrote, "that Dr. 
Fisher's death should profoundly stir this community, and that, 
irrespective of sect, the day of his funeral should be observed 
as a day of public mourning. The press in this section gave 
elaborate editorials on his life and the circumstances of his 
death ; the public schools in this and adjoining towns were 
closed. The State Normal School at Potsdam suspended exer- 



216 



MEMOIR OF EBEXEZER FISHER. 



cises, its faculty in a body attending the funeral. Every store 
in the village was closed; the college was draped in mourning; 
and over every home the shadow of his death rested with the 
weight of a personal bereavement. The weather was literally 
cold, the snow lay deep within the streets, the trains were 
blocked, and several graduates, on their way to the services, 
were unable to reach town until several hours after the inter- 
ment, while others, after finding when nearly here that they 
could not get through in season, turned back. 

" The body lay in the parlor of the home, surrounded by 
the students who had so often enjoyed its gracious hosiDitality. 
The pastor of the deceased, the Rev. George S. Weaver, D.D., 
conducted the services at the house, at the conclusion of which 
the procession, composed of the trustees, faculty, theological 
and college students, citizens, clergy, family, and friends, moved 
to the church, the body attended by six of his students as 
bearers. In the solemn service in the presence of the vast 
congregation, Dr. Weaver read appropriate Scripture; Dr. 
0. Cone (long associated with the deceased) offered prayer ; 
and fitting and tender service was rendered by the choir. Ad- 
dresses, each having a special application, followed, from Dr. 
Cone, Dr. Lee, and Dr. A. G. Gaines, President of the College 
department. These addresses — dis criminating, tender, affec- 
tionate, and just — were printed in the c Christian Leader/ 
Prayer followed, offered by Piev. J. Crehore. a former pastor. 

" The coffin was then placed in the vestibule, and the vast 
audience passed slowly by it. Many eyes were wet with tears 
as they looked upon the familiar face, unmarked as it was by 
the lines of protracted sickness, but round, calm, serene, as if 
in sleep. The long procession then formed, and, in the face of 
a severe storm, through the bitter cold, bore the body to its 
resting-place ; and there, in the snow around the grave, the 
students and friends gathered, a brief prayer was offered, and 
amid the deepening shadows of the approaching night they 
made there in 1 God's Acre ; a lonely mound which, through 



"LAST OF EARTH." 



217 



the coming years, will be a sacred spot to that vast throng of 
faithful men who have been helped by his teaching and inspired 
by the purity and devotion of his life." 

Such was the last of earth to the great and good, man 
whose history I have sought to portray. Lacking but 
a few months, the coveted twenty-one years of service 
were "rounded out." The battle was fought. The 
victory was won. Ebenezer Fisher rested from his 
labors. 

I again quote the Rev. Mr. Gunnison : — 

" On the following morning, the theological students as- 
sembled as usual in Dr. Fisher's room. His vacant chair stood 
in its familiar place. The Bible, hymn-book, roll- bo ok, were 
as he had left them. A solemn hush brooded over the little 
assembly as the students sang the songs that he had loved. 
Professor Cone read the Scriptures, Rev. M. R. Leonard, a grad- 
uate of the first class, offered prayer; and then addresses by 
Professors Cone, Lee, and Leonard ; by graduates Gunnison, 
Weeks, Fraser, Couden ; and by many of the students, . — fol- 
lowed, all of them in voices trembling and broken with grief 
and amid thick-falling tears. The hour was one of deepest 
solemnity. The spirit of the departed seemed to fill every 
heart; and the vacant chair, though mute, stirred every heart 
to loyalty to his memory." 

On Wednesday, the Alumni took important action. 
A Monument Committee (Rev. Messrs. Gunnison, 
Leonard, and Cone) was instructed to place at the 
grave a suitable Monument, with appropriate ceremony, 
at the succeeding Commencement, — the same to be a 
gift of past students. A Committee for the erection 
of a "Fisher Memorial Building" (Rev. Messrs. Leon- 



218 MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



ard, Pullman, Gunnison, and Conger, and Messrs. W. 
A. Poste and A. Z. Squires) was instructed to raise 
funds and prosecute the work, as a larger memorial and 
needful addition to the institution. I defer full partic- 
ulars to an appendix. 

The Boston Memorial Service was held as appointed. 
I condense from the " Christian Leader" : — 

" At the hour of seven, p.m., the exercises "began with a vol- 
untary by the organ and choir. The Rev. C. A. Skinner read 
selections from the Scriptures. Rev. Dr. A. J. Patterson offered 
prayer. The hymn 719, 'Church Harmonies/ was then sung 
by choir and congregation. Dr. Sawyer then made a brief 
address, in which he classified Dr. Fisher with the great and 
noble men whereof every church has its heritage, and in touch- 
ing accents alluded to his official and personal relations to him 
when he was installed as the head of the Canton School. He 
announced the several topics and speakers ; and the addresses 
— all of which were published in the ' Christian Leader' — 
came in the following order : c Biographical Sketch,' by Rev. 
Richard Eddy ; the ' Character and Influence of the Deceased,' 
by Rev. 0. F. Safford ; the ' Denominational Relations and 
Influence of the Deceased,' by Dr. A. A. Miner." 

In Boston, as in Canton, the solemn theme gave 
thought and inspiration to every speaker ; and careful 
analysis, discriminate eulogy, grateful recognition of 
eminent service to the Church of Christ, and particu- 
larly to the Universalist branch of that church, gave 
direction and character to the memorial hour. In literal 
truth, a whole denomination was in mourning for an 
irreparable loss in the death of Ebenezer Fisher. 



TRIBUTES. 



219 



CHAPTER XXI. 

TRIBUTES. 

Tributes proffered for this Volume. — From Dr. 0. Cone. — Dr. 
J. S. Lee..— Rev. M. Goodrich. — Dr. I. M. Atwood. — Dr. J. G. 
Adams. 

T MIGHT regret that the limits within which it is 
needful that I restrict this memoir forbid my use of 
the many discourses, speeches, and eulogies which fol- 
lowed the decease of Dr. Fisher, but for the reflection 
that these have appeared in print, most of them in the 
" Christian Leader," and to some extent in all the de- 
nominational papers. But a few that have been volun- 
teered for my use in the preparation of this volume, and 
which for the first time now appear, are gratefully re- 
ceived, and are herewith submitted. 

The following full and critical estimate is from the 
pen of Dr. O. Cone, for many years closely connected 
with the head of the Canton School : — 

" The impression of Dr. Fisher's personality can never be 
forgotten by any one who ever stood in his presence. It was a 
happy blending of rugged strength and sensitive tenderness, of 
rigid justice and melting kindness, of strong self-assertion and 
graceful modesty, of the robustness and aggressive force of the 
pioneer and the calmness and repose of the philosopher. He 



220 



MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



seemed strength, clothed in gentleness and crowned with 
benignity. I shall never forget the impression he made upon 
me the first time I ever saw him. It was at the New York 
State Convention, in Troy, in 1863. I think some resolutions 
had been read, the purport of which was that the 4 young men,' 
having outgrown the theology of the 1 fathers,' should take a new 
departure and found a policy in harmony with the progressive 
spirit of the age. The discussion which followed was in a fair 
way to become heated and bitter, when a large man, with white 
locks and a bald head, rose with a quick, nervous movement, 
and, with a slight tremor in his voice and a somewhat rigid 
cast of the strong features, began to speak. He spoke at first 
with a measured movement, and in a low tone, like a father 
talking with serious earnestness to his boys ; but at length, 
grasping the subject with a closer hold, he began to speak with 
animation and in a firmer tone, while his whole bearing and 
expression of features corresponded with the strong movement 
of his thought. I cannot now recall the matter of that short 
speech, but the effect and impression are not to be forgotten. 
It was searching, comprehensive, unsparing, yet tempered with 
such a spirit of paternal mildness, and so pervaded by justice 
and fairness, that it was felt that nothing more remained to be 
said. 

" The impression which he always left in handling any sub- 
ject was that of a vigorous intellect guided by a wise judgment 
and informed by a rugged common-sense. He had no taste for 
refined speculations, and never pursued the nicer distinctions 
of metaphysics with especial fondness. I remember that he 
once borrowed of me a work of a rather abstruse and specu- 
lative character, and returned it in a day or two with the 
remark : 4 It is too far off for me ! ' 

" In like manner the doctor was accustomed to regard theo- 
logical questions from a practical rather than from a specula- 
tive and critical point of view. He handled them in a large, 
bold way, and was a strong reasoner on those which he had 



TRIBUTES. 



221 



studied. But lie had no taste for historical criticism, and his 
theology was made up without regard to its conclusions. He 
once said to me that it was impossible for him to doubt any 
thing that the Evangelists wrote, so contrary was such a doubt 
to his settled convictions and his habits of thought. And his 
want of interest in such questions as the authorship of the 
fourth Gospel, is illustrated by a remark which I once heard 
him make to a class, that this Gospel was received as genuine 
by all except a few scribblers. The speculations of the Tubin- 
gen critics were ' too far off ' from the line of thought on 
which he was steadfastly pursuing the objects of his life, to re- 
ceive from him more than a glance and an expression of im- 
patient contempt. 

" This tendency of his mind is further illustrated by a 
judgment which I once heard him pronounce on the book of 
Revelation, and his grounds for the same. He said he did not 
think the book properly canonical, nor written by the Apostle 
John, because its spirit was not in harmony with that of the 
Christian religion. Thus he was accustomed to cut many a 
Gordian knot of critical intricacies by a vigorous stroke of 
sense. 

" It is well known how near to the heart of Dr. Fisher lay the 
interests and prosperity of the Theological School. And if in 
its darkest days he never quite despaired of its success, it was 
in part because he had a right and clear perception of its value 
to the church. He knew very well that it was destined to 
shape to a large degree the future of the denomination ; and 
he was profoundly impressed with the responsibility that rested 
on the Faculty. I remember how once, in a long and confiden- 
tial conversation about the school, he touched upon this subject 
with that tremulous reserve with which the mind naturally 
approaches a sacred theme, and, after dwelling upon it with 
feeling for some time, remarked : 6 If our people knew what 
power they put into our hands, they would be more solicitous 
and more watchful of our work/ He labored to establish the 



222 



MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



success of the Theological School on the foundation of thorough 
training and conscientious work on the part of the Faculty, and 
did not believe in sensational expedients. When the new The- 
ological School was established at Tufts College, many of the 
friends of the Canton School were solicitous lest that should be 
prejudicial to the success of this. But the Doctor never seemed 
anxious on this subject, nor did he regard the eastern school as 
a rival of that at Canton. He was accustomed only to say : 
• If we do our work well, we shall prosper.' 

*' ; The government of the Theological School, under Dr. 
Fisher's administration, cannot perhaps be more accurately 
characterized than by the word paternal. The venerable as- 
pect of the President, his kindly interest in the students, and 
the gracious benignity that marked his intercourse with them, 
spread through the school the influence and the sentiment of 
the Christian family. Few rules were needed, and such as the 
Faculty had agreed upon often went unread for years. A dig- 
nified reserve marked all his relations with the school. He 
had a quick appreciation of the humorous without often in- 
dulging in humor. He always bore an aspect of serious 
earnestness. He was very prompt and methodical in all the 
details of administration. His bell was rung at the hour, 
1 sharp, 5 and all the students who may read these lines will re- 
call the inimitable manner and bearing with which he con- 
ducted the opening exercises, — the kind of resolute expedition 
with which every thing was discharged, and the way he had of 
pronouncing the concluding words : ' The classes may go.' The 
necessary severity of the extreme penalty ever inflicted in the 
school — the Reprimand — was so tempered with wise counsel 
and paternal kindness that its effect was always salutary and 
helpful. The offender on whom it had been inflicted felt in- 
deed that his faults and weaknesses had been exposed with keen 
analysis and unsparing severity ; but he came out of the ordeal 
with the feeling that the hand of a father had been laid upon 
him. 



TRIBUTES. 



223 



"Perhaps in no respect was the influence of our lamented 
teacher more helpful than in the enthusiasm of Christian man- 
hood which he inspired in the young men of the Theological 
School. His personality was so charged with faith, earnestness, 
and consecration, that the nature must have been very unsus- 
ceptible which, in any considerable intercourse with him, was 
not quickened by his spirit. There was this quality in his in- 
fluence, that it never made imitators. Of those who have been 
under his instruction he has many followers, but I do not 
know a single imitator-. This is attributable in part to the 
absence in him of merely brilliant qualities ; but it is chiefly 
due, I think, to the fact that he made the spirit rather than the 
form of his personality felt by those who came under his in- 
fluence. For, with all his pronounced individuality, he was 
eminently modest and had the secret of making himself felt 
without being in the least obtrusive. And all those to whose 
education he has contributed will bear witness that, while he 
impressed them with the strength of his own convictions, he 
put no shackles upon their minds, but trained them to the 
spirit and bearing of free men in Christ." 

In connection with other important matters, which I 
have given in preceding pages, the following from Dr. 
J. S. Lee I reserve for this connection : — 

"I owe much to my twenty years' daily intercourse with 
him. It stimulated my mind and promoted my mental growth, 
to talk and reason, and exchange thoughts with him. I often 
differed honestly from him, reasoned and argued, and stren- 
uously maintained my position, yet we were ever friends. He 
was fair and candid and careful in stating his propositions, and 
I learned much from him that was valuable. He was not 
afraid to acknowledge his deficiencies, but he had confidence 
enough in himself to believe that he could remedy them. 
When he was invited to take charge of the Theological School, 



224 



MEMOIR OF EBEXEZER FISHER. 



he said that lie knew only one language, and that not very well. 
But few persons studied more carefully and industriously than 
he, and in a short time he became one of the profoundest theo- 
logians of the denomination. He was not simply a reader of 
books: he was a thinker. He digested what he read, and 
then used it to illustrate and amplify his lessons. I shall be 
grateful that my lot in life was cast so long with him.'" 

I have reserved for this connection the following 
from the Rev. M. Goodrich : — 

" It is now seventeen years since I left Canton: of course my 
interest in the school ceased not with my resignation. Deeply 
sympathizing with Professor Fisher, I aided in one critical 
hour in raising funds to endow a professorship, and otherwise 
strove to assist the school, as kind letters from him acknowl- 
edge. But I seldom met him. and heard with deep emotion of 
his death. Waiting one evening, last February, at a station in 
Boston for hours, I sought to while away the time by reading 
a newspaper. Suddenly my eye lighted on a brief paragraph 
which told of the death of Professor Fisher ; and I recollected 
a story told me in Potsdam relative to the decease of Silas 
"Wright. My informant was a lady, and she told me that her 
father was riding into the village of Canton, on the morning 
following the death of that Statesman. He had not heard of 
the bereavement, 'but,' said he, 'as I entered the village, I 
knew that some calamity had happened. There was a hush 
in the very air, and an appearance of sadness that made me ask, 
What is the matter ? ' And I felt that a like hush stilled the 
atmosphere of Canton, a like pall fell upon it. when Ebenezer 
Fisher faltered on the steps, and died in the halls, of that 
building, where for so many years he had reverently trained 
youth for the Christian ministry.''' 

The Rev. I. M. Atwood. D.D.. — successor to Dr. 
Fisher in the Presidency of the Canton Theological 



TRIBUTES. 



225 



School, — made a note in the " Christian Leader/' to 
which he appends a brief paragraph for my present use. 
Together they make the following : — 

<f A grand man, made up in a large and noble fashion, with 
paternal benignity in his face and a note of sonorous warning 
in his voice, able, acute, aggressive, unmovable, the sturdy 
strength and wintry rigor of his nature relieved by a certain 
charm of tenderness which affected one like the scent of sweet 
flowers amid the majesty of the primeval woods, in his preach- 
ing a strain of deep sincerity which made the hearer feel the 
solemn reality of those things about which there is so much 
superficial prattle, — a great, brave, patient spirit, loyal to the 
truth, trustworthy as a star, and of such a breadth and strength 
of moral build as made him an imposing Christian force in the 
community, — such to our thought was Ebenezer Fisher, who 
fell asleep Friday morning, Feb. 21, having just passed his 
sixty-fourth birthday. 

" To this, my acquaintance with the place of his residence 
and the theatre of his work, enables me to supplement two 
remarks : (1) That the community in which he lived and la- 
bored for so large a part of his life is penetrated with a subtle 
influence, an aroma, from his strong yet gentle nature. This 
was strikingly exemplified to me by the remark of a man 
whom I met in a shop here. 4 Well, sir/ said he, ' Dr. Fisher 
was one good man. It was a great thing for him just to live in 
a place? (2) That Dr. Fisher was a great teacher of truth 
because he was himself so full of truth. Character tells every- 
where, but in no pursuit more powerfully than in teaching. 
Dr. Fisher's words were not vox et prwterea nihil. They were, 
like his Master's, spirit and life." 

The Rev. John G. Adams, D.D., places in my hands 
the following, with which I must conclude a chapter 
that could easily be extended : — 

15 



i 



226 MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



" The clear, strong intellect, and large-heartedness of Dr. 
Fisher, were eminent qualifications for his work as a preacher 
and teacher of the gospel. Every attentive thinker who lis- 
tened to him was interested and edified by his speech. Plain- 
ness, directness, earnestness, and aptness of illustration, were 
in his sermons ; and his versatility of mental endowments ren- 
dered him an able leader and counsellor on all occasions calling 
for his aid or advice. He was a standing reproof to all inor- 
dinate pretension or self-sufficiency. We were not a little 
amused as well as gratified, at an ordaining council, a few 
years ago, with the quiet but most forcible answers which he 
gave to a young minister, who was moved to question him 
somewhat closely on certain of the Old Testament records and 
afiirmations. But in his keenness there was the utmost courtesy 
and tenderness. Firm as a rock in his convictions of truth, he 
was one of the most candid inquirers after more of its revela- 
tions. Breadth, depth, massiveness, all were enstamped upon 
him. He seemed to me a kind of Christianized Plato." 



ANALYSIS OF CHARACTER. 



227 



CHAPTER XXII. 

ANALYSIS OF CHARACTER. 

A First Impression. — Corrected on Acquaintance. — The Biogra- 
pher's Temptation. — A Sensitive Nature. — Given to sharp 
Retort. — Profound Sincerity. — Pre-eminently a man of Faith. 
— Unappreciative of Sceptical Difficulties. — Religious Convic- 
tions Realities. — Hatred of Pretence. — An Incident. — Logical 
Power. — Distaste of Speculative Philosophy. — Combination of 
Gifts. — As a Preacher. — Needed a Practical End. — Style. — ■ 
Great Gift for Illustration. — Glows with Metaphor. — A Humor- 
ist. — Instance of Humor. — Conservative. — The Bible authori- 
tative. — Strength of Universalist Convictions. — Name to be 
honored. — An Example to emulate. 

T VIVIDLY recall the first impression made upon me 
by the man whose career I have sought to describe. 
In the spring of 1849, at the time residing in Louisville, 
Kentucky, I read an article in the " Universalist Quar- 
terly," entitled, " Memory and Conscience in the Future 
State," signed " E. F." Some comments upon this 
article, I think in the "Trumpet," gave the name for 
which the initials stood. The article impressed me as 
acute and somewhat novel in its thought. I set it down 
as the production of a good thinker and a facile writer. 
The name was new. After what seems to be a general 
instinct, I formed an image of the man. I pictured 
him as thin, short of stature, with black eyes, and a 



228 MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



head of heavy black hair ! The following spring I came 
to Boston. The date of my return was that of Anni- 
versary Week. I called on the Rev. Mr. (now Dr.) 
A. A. Miner, at his house on Green Street. Entering 
the parlor, as I did before Mr. Miner appeared, I saw 
sitting there a large man, quite bald, with a round, 
massive head, light eyes, very light complexion, stal- 
wart of frame. — evidently a man of both mental and 
physical strength. He at once called me by name. — 
which he must have overheard at the door, — adding : 
" I heard of you some years since. Did you not preach 
a few months in Ellsworth and Bucksport ? I see you 
do not know me." He was about to relieve my curi- 
osity when Mr. Miner, entering the room, introduced 
me to " Eev. Ebenezer Fisher." I was surprised be- 
yond measure. Never had I formed a i; first impres- 
sion " more utterly falsified on acquaintance. But the 
first interview gave me an impression which thirty years 
of subsequent familiarity have confirmed and deepened, 
— that of strength of intellect with weight of character. 

The incidents collated in these pages must in their 
aggregate significance enable each reader to form a 
judgment of the character of Ebenezer Fisher. But it 
belongs to the biographer to add to the estimate given 
by others his own conception of the distinguishing traits 
of the man. This I have already done in a fractional 
and disconnected way. in the comments added at vari- 
ous connections in the preceding pages. Briefly let me 
attempt a consistent and symmetrical whole. 



ANALYSIS OF CHARACTER. 



229 



The biographer who has esteemed, and who yet 
reveres, the person whose history he seeks to sketch, 
must beware of the temptation to ill-considered and in- 
judicious praise. A perfect character never commands 
full assent. It is at once presumed that the partiality 
of friendship has perverted or else withheld facts. The 
saying is very trite that no man is perfect. It is true. 
Abundant observation shows that great strength is apt 
to be compensated with weaknesses equally marked. 
Ebenezer Fisher was a man, and therefore he was not 
faultless. I have thought him, in extreme cases, rather 
impatient under criticism. He did not always — I 
think he did usually — remember the proverb, " A soft 
answer turneth awa} 7 wrath." Strong in every phase of 
character, he was strong in his indignation ; and when 
suffering from the sting of what he believed to be in- 
justice, he could phrase a philippic in terms quite the 
reverse of gentle. There were contingencies in which 
much smaller men, and much his inferior in character, 
could have given him wise counsel. He hated injustice, 
— what he thought to be such, — and when himself the 
victim he hated it none the less. In the intensity of 
his feeling and the scathing of his rhetoric, I think he 
was at times somewhat at fault. But I do not think 
that he himself suspected this. Had that difficult phase 
of self-knowledge been clear to him, I do not doubt 
that he would have held himself in perfect check. For 
in all things he was sincere, truthful, honest. There 
was in his nature not a particle of guile. Indeed, it 



230 



MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



sometimes seemed to me that the very soundness of his 
moral nature unfitted him to be duly lenient. His ha- 
tred of duplicity was a passion. Rather than have been 
guiltv of an act of conscious wrong, he would have 
severed his right hand. Possibly he demanded of poor 
human nature more than average human nature is equal 
to, though never more than was simple and obvious to 
his own more exalted gifts. 

I fully endorse — had I the gift I would more 
strongly state — what his many eulogists have singled 
out as his dominant trait. He was a man of religious 
faith. God, Christ, immortality, salvation, heaven, 
were to him no unmeaning words. It was said of Jon- 
athan Edwards that when he arose to preach he seemed 
to the people as if he had just seen God. Ebenezer 
Fisher literally had his conversation in heaven. He 
had the tone and the expression of one who had 
seen and known the things whereof he affirmed. In- 
deed, the strength of his faith was the one enervating 
element in his otherwise masterly and comprehensive 
criticisms. He really could not understand the doubter, 
for himself had never known doubt. The criticism 
which created scepticism had never affected him. 
Hence, the criticism usually needful for the removing o^ 
scepticism he never needed. I must think that in some 
things he failed in treating unbelief, for the reason that 
he did not personally feel the necessity of resisting it. 
The principles of the New Testament were to his soul 
the bread of life and the water of life. Was not this 



^ 



ANALYSIS OF CHARACTER. 231 

knowledge? Must he search, and try, and speculate, 
touching the things he personally knew ? I remember 
the drift of an essay once read in his hearing, in the 
Essex Circle. Its points were that Christianity" demands 
a perfect life ; that some souls are so imperfect, and 
their attainments so crude, that such a standard is 
literally beyond their conception, and of course beyond 
their reach ; and hence that for the time and the existing 
conditions some allowance must be made. Is the law 
that binds him of ten talents as exacting when applied 
to him of but a single talent? I remember that he re- 
fused even to answer the question ! He did not consider 
it a legitimate one. He disposed of it with an earnest, 
almost solemn citation : " Be ye therefore perfect ! " In 
fact, he could not enter into the feelings of one who 
might with serious intent submit such a problem. 

Faith lays hold upon God and eternal life. Dr. 
Fisher was therefore a devout man. His belief in God 
was with the heart as well as with the understanding. 
Wherever he appeared, an atmosphere of healthy piety 
enfolded him, radiated from him. There was something 
of worship in his mere companionship. In his life as in 
his thought he made the distinction between morality 
and religion. He knew that love of a brother is differ- 
ent from the love of God, yet he knew that he who 
failed to love God would also fail to love his brother. 

On all matters moral and religious his intellect was 
keen. Hollow pretence seldom imposed upon him. 
He knew the charlatan at sight ; he therefore literally 



232 MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



loathed pretence. He could not endure the popular 
speaker who aimed for effect while he was reckless of 
the conditions of a just effect. Here I must relate an 
incident. A certain popular minister gave a lecture. 
I was delighted with it ; I thought it grand, solid, and 
eloquent. Stating my impression to Mr. Fisher, he al- 
most offended me with his blunt rejoinder : 4 4 He is a 
quack, shallow and frothy." Of course the logic of 
this was not complimentary to my own discernment, 
and I confess I did not take it with a relish. I sought 
to contest the censure, but I made no impression. But 
there was a sequel, in which it appeared that neither of 
us was at fault. About six weeks after, he met me in 
a Salem library, and with his expressive smile he ex- 
claimed : u Well, you probably were not wrong in your 
opinion of that lecture. He stole it ! " The lecture 
was "solid, grand, and eloquent," but it was a pla- 
giarism. The experience serves my present purpose : 
it brought out Dr. Fisher's hatred of pretence. 

Understanding by logic the process which educes a 
conclusion from conceded premises, I think Dr. Fisher 
had few equals as a logician. He could reason ; he 
could see when others reasoned. Any flaw in the ratio- 
cination he detected on the instant. 

There were some departments of intellectual life for 
which he had no sympathy. In the great essayist, 
Ralph Waldo Emerson, he saw nothing to admire, — but 
little to tolerate. He thought him disintegrating and 
incoherent. We sat together one evening as Emerson 



/ 



ANALYSIS OF CHARACTER. 



233 



read a lecture on " Fate." I felt that the hearer must 
reserve his judgment ; that he must take the lecture as 
suggestion rather than doctrine ; and that its special 
mission was to quicken thought rather than to impart it. 
I think so now. But my companion's impatience was 
manifest : it rose to disgust. At the close he made the 
terse comment: "It is immoral." He had as little 
sympathy for the speculative thinker. He saw nothing 
practical in the Hamiltons, the Reids, and the Cousins. 
Nor did he see that the study of them was a wholesome 
discipline. He once said to me : "The whole of them 
are not worth so much as one of Lord Bacon's Essays." 
These, I may add, were his ideals of philosophic wisdom. 
He made the complaint that students of that school of 
thinkers were apt to be pedantic, impracticable, and 
lifeless. " But," said I, " Dr. Ballou and Dr. Walker 
have studied that kind of lore : you cannot say that 
they are impracticable and pedantic." He refused to 
amend his criticism. I candidly confess that the many 
mental gifts which had been so largely conferred upon 
him did not include, in any large measure, the one 
whose creations never evoked his sympathy. 1 

In truth, the greatness of Dr. Fisher was in a 
combination of gifts. Others excelled him in one or 

1 I base this judgment on Dr. Fisher as I knew him prior to 
1860. Former students, now of the special attainments to justify 
them in forming an estimate, assure me that, on becoming a teacher 
of metaphysics, he 'disclosed therefor an extraordinary faculty ; that 
he profoundly appreciated Sir William Hamilton, and had the warm- 
est admiration of that scholastic philosopher. 



234 MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



another faculty, in one or another attainment ; but 
rarely does any one person combine so many and in 
such ample proportions. But, as a result of this com- 
bination and ready control of many talents, he was a 
critic beyond that of any other whom I have intimately 
known. That was his specialty as a teacher, — a 
specialty that in such a profession is mighty and com- 
manding. 

As a preacher. Dr. Fisher had the very majesty of 
strength. When a specified end was before him, he 
concentrated upon it with marvellous effect. If he 
meant something in particular, he cleared the way of all 
obstructions. He ruled out superfluous ideas not less 
than superfluous words. And he was sure to carry his 
point and to cany his hearers with it. 

When, however, no particular end was sought ; when 
no clearly defined target concentrated his aim ; when he 
merely sought to unfold a thought, yet having in con- 
templation no specific practical result, — he was not 
always interesting. He would at times be somewhat 
mystical, his ideas lacking clearness, and then- enuncia- 
tion directness. In such pulpit efforts his saving grace 
was in the majesty of his character. If his utterances 
were not always understood, he was never ambiguous. 

Dr. Fisher was a student of style. His- best of pub- 
lished essays, 1 as I estimate them, was an article with 

1 In his "biographical sketch, read at the Memorial service in 
Boston, the Rev. Richard Eddy gave a summary of Dr. Fisher's pub- 
lished writings. They are as follows : " Memory and Conscience in 



ANALYSIS OF CHARACTER. 



235 



that title, published in the " Universalist Quarterly." 
He knew the secrets of pure and expressive rhetoric. 
His writings, when on themes that particularly moved 
him, were vivacious, bright, and pungent. He literally 
revelled in tropes and metaphors. I have often made 
this statement in regard to him, and it has not un- 
frequently occasioned some surprise. Indeed, there 
was so much of the matter-of-fact in his composition, he 
so habitually exemplified the mathematical axiom that 

the Future State ; " " Old Testament Prophecies concerning Christ ; " 
" Spirituality ; " " Style ; " " The Will ; " " The Righteous and the 
Wicked ; " " Heathen Views of the Punishment of Sin ; " " Lessons 
from Nature ; " " The Intercession of Christ ;" " Geology and the 
Fall ; " " Credibility and Inspiration of the New Testament ; " " The 
Destiny of the Creature ; " " Of Sin ; " " The Moral Sense." These 
appeared in the "Universalist Quarterly," between and including 
the years 1849 and 1876. Sermons on the following named themes 
appeared in the "Trumpet," the dates ranging from November, 
1849, to October, 1857 ; " The Evils of a Transient Ministry," 
preached before the Boston Association ; " Substantive Faith," a 
sermon to the Boston Association Home Missionary Society; "A 
righteous Life brings a full Age and a peaceful Death," funeral ser- 
mon for Mrs. Putnam, of Salem ; and " Gradual Evolution of the 
Divine Purpose," a sermon before the Norfolk County Association. 
To this list may be added his address to his first graduating class, 
published in the " Christian Ambassador/' and several minor pa- 
pers in the denominational journals. I particularly note " The 
Christian Doctrine of Salvation : a discussion between Rev. E. 
Fisher, D.D., and Rev. J. H. Walden, on the proposition, * All men 
will be finally saved.' Boston : Universalist Publishing House. 
1869." Mr. Walden died before the limits agreed upon for the dis- 
cussion were reached. In this pamphlet Dr. Fisher's argumentative 
ability appears in its full vigor. 



236 



MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



the shortest line connecting two points is a straight 
one, that -it seemed impossible that he should indulge 
in an indiscretion, even in his rhetoric. Once, after he 
had read an essay in the Essex Circle, the first critic 
exclaimed : " Why, it seems to me that Brother Fisher 
has taken a notion to be figurative to-day." He knew 
his own taste and habit, and in reply said : ' ; Brother 
Fisher is always figurative. " Literally he was ; his 
mind seemed to float in an atmosphere of similes. 
Figures sparkled, at times flamed, all along the thread 
of his discourse. The gift was a great one. It gave 
him power ; it relieved the dryness of discussion ; it 
pleased while it instructed and elevated. A young man 
once preached in his hearing on the passage from moral 
death unto life. Mr. Fisher was pleased, but he could 
not restrain a slight criticism : J ' Why did you not think 
of the man half drowned coming back to conscious- 
ness?" Himself overflowing with comparisons, analo- 
gies, even allegories, he felt the lack of them to be a 
serious defect. 

Dr. Fisher was a humorist. His clerical dignity was 
never compromised, but he was at times full of fun. 
He loved to hear stories ; he loved to tell them. He 
was fond of companionship, and he made every social 
circle that he entered radiant with happiness. Of course 
this humorist must at least once in his life act the part 
of a u match-maker." There was a certain man of his 
acquaintance, and also a certain woman, whom he 
deemed admirably fitted for each other. He said so. 



ANALYSIS OF CHARACTER. 



237 



He meant to bring them together. This was his device. 
There was a church fair ; the fair had a post-office. A 
letter came to that man, clearly in the chirography of 
Mr. Fisher. It was covered with lines, no one of which 
connected with any other, — no one of which was com- 
plete. In his amazement, the man showed to others 
the singular epistle. A letter also came to that woman, 
clearly in the chirography of Mr. Fisher. It also was 
filled with lines having no reciprocal and interpreting 
relations. In her amazement she exhibited to others 
the curious sheet. The secret was soon explained. 
The man and the woman were brought together, and it 
appeared that a line of one letter was properly followed 
and made intelligible by a line of the other letter. In 
less than six months that man and that woman were 
husband and wife. Had not Ebenezer Fisher the in- 
vention of the humorist ? 1 

1 An anecdote illustrative of Dr. Fisher's ready humor came to 
the knowledge of the Rev. L. C. Browne, of Honeoye Falls, New 
York, who puts me in possession of it. It is the following : - — 

" In early life Dr. Fisher was a member of the legislature of his 
native State. At that time the laws of Maine prohibited the inter- 
marriage of white and colored persons. A bill was introduced to 
repeal that prohibition, and Mr. Fisher advocated the repeal. An 
opposer of the bill intimated that he would consent to the repeal 
in Mr. Fisher's case, if his tastes for marriage ran in that direction, 
but would adhere to the old law for society at large. This occasioned 
some merriment at young Fisher's expense. In rejoinder, Mr. Fisher 
said he did not advocate the repeal on account of any personal in- 
clination toward such intermarriage, and presumed that no other 
friend of the repeal was governed by such a motive. But if his 
honorable opponent felt the need of legal restraint against that kind 



238 MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 



I have said that the tendencies of Dr. Fisher's mind 
were conservative. The statement holds in regard to 
his beliefs not less than his actions. He had an in- 
stinctive reverence for the past ; he had little confidence 
in theories that find their principal claim in their nov- 
elty ; he believed in growth, slow growth, rather than 
in sudden creations. The experiences of ages went for 
a great deal, in his estimation. None of the rationalis- 
tic theories troubled him, either in science or in theology. 
The first year of my acquaintance with him, a remarka- 
ble book — " The Vestiges of -the Creation " — was cre- 
ating some stir. His view of it was based upon what 
he deemed its effects : " Were the truth known, I doubt 
not, it would appear that thousands have lost not only 
their faith but their peace of mind also from the reading 
of that book." This was a comment in answer to a 
question I put to him. The radical prides himself on 
contempt of consequences. He goes to the fountain- 
head and takes what he discovers to be truth, " though 
the heavens fall : " that is his boast. The conservative 
does not accept the notion that the truth of theories 
can be determined without looking at results. Dr. 
Fisher included consequences in his search for truth. 
I think he carried this conservative spirit to. an ex- 
treme. 

He accepted the Bible as the man of his counsel, 

of union, lie would support an amendment with a proviso for his in- 
dividual case, and making him an exception to the general liberty. 
Then the laugh was louder on the other side." 



ANALYSIS OF CHARACTER. 



239 



the criterion of belief. The external argument, which 
builds upon prophecy fulfilled and miracle, — the con- 
stituents of which are items of history, — he deemed 
conclusive. He had no fear that hostile criticism could 
ever shake that support. Yet he lived and rejoiced in 
the internal argument, — that which affirms a mutual 
correspondence between the intuitions of the soul and 
the essentials of Christian doctrine. And he did not 
hesitate to say that this internal proof, the witness 
within, was the final one, and that he who had it was 
firmly grounded in the Christian faith. 

He was not sectarian in any meaning of the word that 
can reasonably give offence. He never deemed Chris- 
tianity and Universalism convertible terms. He never 
-claimed that any human interpretation can include the 
fulness of God's truth manifest in Jesus Christ. His 
first aim as a preacher was to make Christians ; as a 
teacher, to make Christian ministers. But, next to 
that, he was set for the defence of the Universalist in- 
terpretation of the Divine Word. Through great tribu- 
lation he had come out of the fiery furnace of the Cal- 
vinistic doctrine into the light and joy of God's impartial 
grace. His change of faith was profound. He was 
Universalist in his faith, and in every fibre of his soul. 
He believed that a good and wise God, the Father of 
all human souls, must in the end bring all things into 
perfect subjection to his will. The idea of the Divine 
goodness and that of permanent evil he deemed mu- 
tually exclusive. The letter of Scripture he thought 



240 MEMOIR OF EBENEZER FISHER. 

clear and explicit to that effect. Sovereign grace, mani- 
fest in the mission of Christ the Redeemer, must at last 
extend as far as the reign of sin, and God be all in all 
in the complete salvation of the now sinful world. And 
he deemed the truth of inestimable value as a saving 
grace. Only love can save. That is a truth for earth 
not less than for worlds beyond. No attestation of that 
love can justify belief which does not include the re- 
deeming plan. In the pulpit, in his school, in his part- 
ing word to the graduating class, he did not fail to give 
thanks and to exalt God, 6 1 who will have all men to be 
saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth." 
I do not think that, as a preacher or a teacher, he was 
particularly controversial ; but he never failed firmly 
and confidently to assert the doctrine which in early 
youth was to himself the passage from darkness unto 
light, — the doctrine of God's sovereign grace, attested 
at last in the great and all-inclusive salvation from sin 
and woe. 

As I bring to a conclusion this Memoir, the feeling 
comes on me that I have been in communion with an 
exalted character. I have, candidly I trust, conceded 
minor defects in the mentality and the conduct of the 
man. But, in the contrast with his firm sincerity, his 
pure intent, his consecrated endeavors, his adhesion to 
honest conviction, his loyalty to duty, I can, in the full 
approbation of conscience, pronounce Ebenezer Fisher 
one of the few who rise to the measure of greatness. 
He has taken his place not alone among the leading and 



ANALYSIS OF CHARACTER. 



241 



constructive spirits of the Universalist Church, but of 
the Church universal. His past is secure. His work 
was a victory. His hold on the reverent love of those 
who knew him in life is firm. And other generations 
shall hear his praises recited, and shall profit by the 
work he began. The Universalist Church will preserve 
in pride the name — may it ever emulate the conspicu- 
ous virtues — of Ebenezer Fisher. 



16 



APPENDIX. 



I. 

A DEDICATORY ADDRESS. 1 
By Rev. Everett L. Conger. 



Fellow-students and Friends. — A sad yet grateful duty 
calls us to this spot : sad, because it reminds us that one whom 
we all loved is taken from us ; the lips so eloquent to teach are 
dumb, the mind where great thoughts were born, and so elec- 

1 As noted in Chapter XX., the Alumni of the Canton Theologi- 
cal School, on the day succeeding the funeral services of Dr. Fisher, 
voted to place a monument over the grave of their beloved teacher. 
The vote was carried into effect. June 26, 1879, — on occasion of 
the Commencement exercises of the St. Lawrence University, — the 
monument was dedicated by appropriate exercises. A plain, perfect 
shaft of Quincy granite, severely simple, massive, of fine propor- 
tions and excellent finish, the monument bears the simple inscrip- 
tion of his name, birth, and death, and the words, " Erected by the 
Alumni of the Theological School. " In the presence of an immense 
concourse of people, representing every creed, the solemn service 
was rendered. Dr. 0. Cone, of the Monument Committee, presented 
the monument to the Alumni. The Rev. W. W. Hooper, of Hun- 
tington, 1ST. Y., offered prayer. The Rev. E. L. Conger then gave 
the dedicatory address, — the text of which is herewith given. An 
original hymn, by Rev. E. W. Preble, of Bangor, Me., was sung by 
the theological students. A benediction, pronounced by Rev. J. F. 
Simmons, of Webster, Mass., closed the service. 



244 



APPENDIX. 



trie to provoke great thoughts in others, has finished its work : 
sad, because the lofty soul has left its earthly temple to crum- 
ble into sacred dust beneath our feet : grateful, because we 
esteem it a privilege to honor true worth, and pay this tribute 
of love to a good man. 

The great loss to our whole church, to our school, and to us 
personally, casts a shadow of sadness to-day ; but with it 
mingles the sunshine of joy, when we come to present this tes- 
timonial of our gratitude and love to his memory. With one 
accord his students have gladly united in erecting this plain 
and simple, but permanent memorial ; and we are now here to 
dedicate it with fitting service. 

First, then, let us dedicate it to the memory of a self-made 
man. Let it remind us, and all students who come after us, of 
the divine possibilities in every man of courage, perseverance, 
and faith. Dr. Fisher made his own beginning and had few of 
the many helps which we have enjoyed : yet he acquired a 
discipline of mind, a breadth of culture, and reached an emi- 
nence as a scholar and teacher, which the many will admire, 
but the few only attain. May his example be an inspiration 
to all who are fighting their own way through difficulties to 
success ! 

On one side of this monument we have placed this inscrip- 
tion : " Ebenezer Fisher, D.D., first President of the Theologi- 
cal School of St. Lawrence University." But, as this school 
was the first of its kind in our Church, it is fitting that we 
should dedicate this monument to the first President of the first 
Theological School of the Universalist Church of America. 

When, in the progress of our growing denomination, this 
theological school was established, the question arose : Where 
shall we find the man qualified to be its President ? Dr. Fisher 
was chosen ; and I have yet to learn that the wisdom of that 
choice, or the fitness of the man, was ever questioned during 
the twenty years he filled that responsible position. And when 
we remember that he was hardly known outside of two States, 



APPENDIX. 



245 



and that he had had no experience in a school of like character, 
either as scholar or teacher, to fit him for the work, his remark- 
able success is still more marvellous, and compels the convic- 
tion that there was a wisdom in the choice beyond human 
knowledge. 

It is the evidence of a great teacher that he always keeps 
the individual character of the scholar above the instruction. 
This was so eminently true of Dr. Fisher, that we ought to 
build it as one block into this memorial. Being a self-made 
man, he knew how to respect the manhood in others. He 
sent out no parrots. He fastened no forms, no mannerisms, no 
fixed methods upon his scholars. He left the mind unfettered, 
and the soul free. Every one could think his own thought in 
his own way, while the feeblest argument w T as heard with the 
utmost patience, as if it was the profoundest truth. He thus 
shamed sophistry and subterfuge, and appealed to the honest, 
manly, Christian convictions of each. 

We who sat as learners at his feet can never forget his efforts 
to inspire our best thoughts, to strengthen our self-reliance and 
make us strong, not in the wisdom of men, but in the power of 
Gocl and his truth, to do his saving work. 

We never felt him as master, save in the natural suprem- 
acy of true worth. With his class he too was a pupil of the 
Great Teacher ; and Paul's words to Timothy were his words to 
us : " Study to show thyself approved of Gocl, a workman that 
needeth not to be ashamed." He felt the magnitude of the 
work for which he was fitting us, and saw the far-reaching re- 
sults of his instruction ; and often said to his classes : " Young 
men, remember the destiny of our church will one day be in 
your hands : its great truths will be entrusted to you, its policy 
will be shaped by you, and its responsibilities will fall on your 
shoulders. " 

And so we want this stone to tell those who come after that 
it marks the resting-place of one who worked in the living 
present, but for the great future. What he did to-day he did 



246 



APPENDIX. 



for all time, and he spoke as if Lis words were going into the 
eternities. We may well say of him what another said of Bry- 
ant : " In all the years of his life, who can recall one line that he 
ever wrote which was not honest and pure, one measure that 
he defended except from the profoundest convictions of right, 
one cause that he advocated which any friend of liberty, of 
humanity, of good government, would deplore 1 " 

We are proud to dedicate this monument to one of whom 
such words are true. It will indeed add nothing to his name ; 
but it gives us pleasure thus to do him honor, and it may guide 
the grateful in the future to emulate his example. 

But the best monument we can build to his memory is a life 
consecrated to the same noble purposes revealed in his. Let 
us, therefore, put a seal of sacredness on this service by dedi- 
cating ourselves to the truth he loved, to the church of his 
choice, to the cause he served, to the Master whom he followed, 
and to the God and Father whom he trusted as a child. 

Then this monument will not have been builded in vain ; 
and the work of God and man so faithfully wrought by him 
will go on in us, towards the fulfilment of the eternal pur- 
pose, — 

f ' The one far-off divine event, 
Towards which the whole creation moves," 

when sin is finished, man becomes divinely man, and God shall 
be all in all. 



APPENDIX. 



247 



II. 

A MEMORIAL ADDRESS. 1 
By Rev. James M. Pullman, D.D. 



Brethren, — In appearing before you to attempt a task to 
which your too partial kindness has considered me not in- 
adequate, I must confess that I find myself in the outset a prey 
to emotions which I can neither completely analyze nor wholly 
control. I thought I had fortified myself against any undue 
access of feeling at this trying hour ; but when I look over this 
great audience, and turn to the familiar and honored faces on 
this platform, and miss from among them the most familiar 
and honored face of all, I cannot dismiss from my heart the feel- 

1 As noted in Chapter XX., the Alumni of the Canton Theologi- 
cal School determined to make the Annual Commencement exercises 
of 1879 the occasion of Memorial Services in honor of President 
Fisher. The services were held in Canton, June 26, 1879. The 
Rev. Almon Gunnison presided. With him on the platform were 
the trustees, professors, clergy, students, and the graduates under 
whose auspices the services were held. In front of the pulpit, the 
students had placed a life-size crayon portrait of Dr. Fisher, its 
frame skilfully wreathed with white roses. Prayer was offered by 
Rev. A. B. Hervey. A solo was sung by Miss Hewitt. The Rev. 
James M. Pullman, D.D., of New York, then delivered the Me- 
morial Address, — herewith given. Representatives of every choir 
in the town then sung a Memorial Hymn, written by Rev. E. L. 
Rexford, D.D. The services closed with a Benediction, pronounced 
by the Rev. A. U. Hutctans, of Middleport, N. Y. 



248 



APPENDIX. 



ing of desolation which follows a personal bereavement. This 
is the first Commencement since this College was founded, at 
which Ebenezer Fisher has not been the central and beloved 
figure ; and when, on former occasions, it has been my pleasant 
duty to address Commencement audiences here, he has always 
filled his accustomed chair, and I have cared more (you must 
pardon me for saying so) for his grave and quiet approval than 
for any other approbation I might win ; and now that the 
desolating certainty is borne in upon me that amidst these 
familiar scenes I shall see his form and hear his voice no more, 
this place, full as it is to-day, seems almost empty and aban- 
doned. 

I know that this is not a funeral occasion. The funeral 
rites, testifying to a sorrow as deep and fervent as ever followed 
the exit of mortal man from this stage of being, are done and 
ended. The duty of this hour is to attempt some genuine and 
discriminating appreciation of the more salient features of his 
character and work. And, in attempting this, I must not for- 
get that what is due to this departed teacher from one of his 
earliest pupils is modesty of praise. Whatever early associa- 
tion, deep affection, and profound respect, might dictate, I must 
not offend the simple dignity and purity of his character by 
terms of too ardent eulogy. 

Neither am I to sketch the history of his whole career. His 
biographer, — able, accomplished, and in every way competent, 
— has been already chosen ; and it will be his grateful task to 
trace, amid the scenes and incidents of youth and early life, the 
development of those forces which made up the matured and 
solid manhood that we knew and honored. 

Our special interest in Ebenezer Fisher begins with the time 
when, twenty-one years ago, he commenced his work here, as 
the first president of our first theological foundation. The 
spectacle before us is that of a strong and capacious soul de- 
voting itself to a lofty purpose. The work before him was 
that of a teacher of teachers ; he was to form, inspire, and 



APPENDIX. 



249 



guide our future Christian apologists, administrators; homilists, 
and pastors. Under the most favorable circumstances, this is a 
sufficiently responsible and oppressive task. Even when aided 
by all the machinery of a great school, the prestige of a venera- 
ble foundation, the security of ample endowments, the helps of 
a sufficient library, a well-trained corps of adjunct professors, a 
copious dogmatic, and homiletic literature, an established sys- 
tem and approved text-books, — even then his work would have 
presented the intrinsic difficulties which belong to the estab- 
lishment of a new school of systematic theology. But these 
helps are precisely what Dr. Fisher did not have ; and, indeed, 
his whole environment was unique and unprecedented. 

Of the three circles of special circumstance which surrounded 
him, the outermost was : — 

1. The changed and changing conditions of religious thought. 

A lusty and aggressive scientific materialism, daily supplied 
with fresh resources, was commencing a new attack upon the 
very citadel of revealed religion, supernaturalism, which found 
but a feeble and timid defender in that religious sentimental- 
ism which, while calling itself orthodox and evangelical, had 
largely lost its hold upon the intellect of its adherents, and de- 
tained them mainly by association and by sentiment. Ration- 
alism had found a new ally in the much-vaunted spirit of 
toleration, created partly by breadth of view and depth of 
charity, and partly by the indifference and hopelessness of utter 
unbelief. 

The new scepticism, less scoffing and malignant than the old, 
was far more severe, persistent, and despondent, — gravitating 
surely, if slowly, toward that certain gulf of abnormally devel- 
oped critical faculty, pessimism. 

The old nihilism, through which we were to " learn to have 
no opinion at all on subjects of the deepest interest," had been 
rechristened, and was appearing under its new titles as nesci- 
ence and agnosticism, and found adherents ready to dignify 
and almost deify an assumed and necessitated ignorance. Ef- 



250 



APPENDIX. 



fects do not imply causes ; morality has no higher sanction 
than utility ; instincts are only the capitalized experiences of 
the race ; God is the Unknowable, and the Christ of the Gos- 
pels is the incredible, — these and many more catch- words of 
an age of most alert, active, and unsettled intellect, were in 
the air when Dr. Fisher assumed the task of instructing a 
school of Christian teachers in a new and larger interpretation 
of Christianity, by which to grapple with the problems of 
thought and life. 

2. Then, in the narrower circle of his environment, the con- 
dition of the Universalist Cliurch was in some respects anoma- 
lous, transitional, and indeterminate. The Universalist body 
was developing into a Church ; it had arrived at its era of self- 
consciousness; it was seeking to define its boundaries and de- 
termine the direction of its activities. A strong tendency 
toward a vital and organic church-life was developing out of its 
earlier and sturdy individualism, and manifesting itself in a 
new spirit of organization and education. Yet whether the 
Universalist body was to only accomplish a specific doctrinal 
reform, and then be reabsorbed by the orthodox mass, or 
whether there was enough vitality in its central idea to give it 
a separate and distinctive existence, based on its power of moral 
control, — this was the problem which the teachers of the body 
were to face. Certainly — and necessarily, heretofore — the 
church had been more aggressive toward false doctrine than 
toward sin ; more eager to change men's opinions than their 
conduct. Whether Universalism should take final form as a 
means of special and chiefly intellectual culture, for the few, or 
become light, inspiration, and renewal, to the many, would, 
humanly speaking, depend largely on the training of its min- 
istry. So believed the earnest souls whose devoted and per- 
sistent labors founded this school. 

3. Then, in the immediate circle of his personal activity, the 
condition of the school itself opposed to Dr. Fisher's resolute will 
difficulties which to many others would have seemed insupera- 



APPENDIX. 



251 



ble. The isolation of its location, the meagerness of its endow- 
ment, the poverty of its equipment, the utter lack of special 
text-books and literary helps ; the small number and imperfect 
mental discipline of the pupils who presented themselves ; and 
his own lack of precedent or experience for the work he had 
undertaken, — these were some of the difficulties amidst which 
he faced his first class in the bare and resounding rooms of the 
new university building. 

It is evident that under such conditions the whole experiment 
depended on the man. And it is here that Dr. Fisher's com- 
manding personality appears. Had Providence sent us any 
thing less, — a scholar only, however profound ; an adminis- 
trator only, however able, — we should not have had success. 
But in Ebenezer Fisher we found at once a man to be believed 
in, whatever else we believed or disbelieved. It has been said 
that he created this school. There is an eminent and distinct 
sense in which he did so ; but this is not the place or time to 
underestimate the faithful helpers by whom his hands were 
upheld and strengthened. I see upon this platform members 
both of the faculty and corporation, without whose wise coun- 
sel and strenuous personal effort the burden could not have 
been carried. 

Nor did the school lack friends abroad, whose timely and 
generous aid tided it over many shoals, and to whom Dr. 
Fisher himself would be prompt to gratefully ascribe much of 
the success which attended his labors. But I think there must 
have been many times during that first uncertain year, when 
his heart sunk within him at the dubious prospect. If he had 
such fears, however, he kept them to himself. Calm, wise, pa- 
tient, untiring, persistent, he worked his way, foot by foot, 
meeting all obstacles with ready resource and indomitable will. 

In April, 1858, this chief labor of his life began, amid so 
many and so great discouragements, to which was added on his 
part a profound self-distrust. But when, twenty-one years 
later, he laid down his work and his life together, he had be- 



252 



APPENDIX. 



coine, as was said of another great teacher. " a giant, with an 
hundred athletes in his train." 

I have sketched thus roughly the chief circumstances which 
bore upon his work here, because, without some knowledge of 
his environment, we cannot rightly estimate the man. 

Let us look now at some of the settled convictions with 
which he met the forces antagonistic to Christianity in the 
larger aspects of religious thought. 

1. Rationalism. To the narrow rationalism of the intellect, 
whose instrument is school-logic, he opposed the broad ration- 
ality of mairs co-ordinate faculties. All the faculties of man, 
their separate and different deliverances taken together and 
blending together, made up, in his view, the rational nature of 
man. Intuition is as rational as induction : the emotions are 
as logical as the understanding. He would never concede that 
making the understanding the sole avenue of truth, and the 
logical process the sole criterion of truth, was a rational pro- 
cedure : and he taught us that a truth might be opaque to the 
understanding, but luminous to the affections, and so authentic. 
To him, a supernatural, or at least a supermundane direction 
and control of human affairs, and a special revelation of the 
Divine will, were in the highest degree rational, and the attempt 
to set them aside by either logic or science was in the highest 
degree irrational. He was merciless toward that form of 
rationalism whose only point is uncertainty, which calls for a 
" suspense of faith,'' and whose disciples somebody has com- 
pared to steamers in a fog, blowing their whistles to say : 
M Here we are, and that ; s all we know." 

As to the scientific materialism, his main position was that 
incomparably the most significant phenomenon in life is the 
living will of man ; and this is precisely the phenomenon of 
which scientific materialism takes the least account. Hence 
the sphere and authority of the scientific method is strictly 
limited, and does not trench upon the domain of theology, 
whose factors are the Living Will of God and the living will 



APPENDIX. 



253 



of man. In regard to the various hypotheses of evolution, 
he held the substance of Martineau's dictum, that u nothing 
can be evolved that is not first involved ; " that God made the 
atom, not the atom God ; that the soul organizes the body, not 
the body the soul. And man has that in him which will for 
ever elude scientific analysis. While he was very far from 
being of that timid crew who, as another has said, are eager to 
" surrender to the first man with a hammer or a microscope 
who challenges their faith," he was nevertheless hospitable to 
scientific thought and theory ; and he expected to find in sci- 
ence, when it should have outgrown the stage of wild and tin- 
verifiable hypothesis, a valuable ally for religion. 

Rising from a scientific study of the atoms and forces of the 
physical world, he breaks forth thus : " Restless, sleepless 
world ! Balanced in impalpable ether, and hastening on an 
endless errand ; with every atom perpetually jostled and mo- 
mentarily counterpoised ; with every particle hurrying to an 
appointed task, pursued by an inevitable law ! How vain the 
thought to pillow ourselves upon it, and find motionless rest ! 
Even the particles of our own bodies come and go, swift as the 
rapid shuttles fly in the ever-weaving web of life. Above us, 
beneath us, around us, through us, sweeps the ceaseless current 
of the shoreless river. From what fountain did it issue ; to 
what ocean does it tend 1 ' For the creature was made subject 
to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him who hath sub- 
jected the same in hope.' 

" To interpret in sadness these lessons of sleepless nature is 
to miss utterly their meaning. Behold, then, in this thronging 
concourse, the flowing currents of life. Its laws, decreed by 
Infinite Goodness, control the great globe and every atom in it. 
The law of life is a law of continued action, and to it all things 
are obedient. There is something always doing ; there is 
something still to do. There is no point where the way is 
stopped ; no place where it turns back on itself to reverse its 
course. Its way is appointed, its path is open, its command 



254 



APPENDIX. 



is c onward.' Every world and every atom glorifies Him 
who made it, by the alacrity of its ceaseless activity. Nor is 
there in their perpetual service any perceived necessity for an 
end. 

" What an argument is here for our continued being ! For 
as. according to their kind, the paths of all entities in nature 
are ever open before them ; so we can do no less than believe 
that, according to its kind, the path of the living soul shall, be- 
fore it, be for ever open, — aye, before it ! for there is not an 
atom in nature which so misses its way as to be compelled to 
retrace its steps in the face of life's streaming current. Shall 
we believe that God's chiefest work is alone lost and bewil- 
dered, alone disordered and confused ? Where all things else 
know their path, shall it be compelled for ever to linger in 
hopeless sadness over its first few steps ? for ever to retrace a 
lost way ? for ever to stand with its back toward its true path 
and its face toward its first fatal missteps, wringing its hands 
in helpless, aimless anguish ? Nature's voice proclaims such 
an idea an anomaly, and on every highway through which 
moves the living hosts of the universe her hand posts it as a 
vicious libel." 

Dr. Fisher's mind was fully alive to the uses and value of 
the destructive criticism, both rational and scientific ; but his 
comprehensive grasp of great questions saved him from an 
inglorious surrender or an ignoble compromise before the cita- 
dels of his faith were really menaced. He was fond of giving 
destructive criticism its full play in the discussion of a vital 
question, stating all its points with the utmost force and fair- 
ness, and then, when it seemed to our inexperienced minds 
that all was lost, turning upon them the resistless batteries of 
defence and repulse, and re-establishing the positions of the 
truth more impregnable than before. It was the comprehen- 
siveness of his mind which gave him that serenity and com- 
posure of conviction which so impressed his pupils. No one 
ever saw him alarmed or disturbed at the most novel and 



APPENDIX. 



255 



trenchant assaults of scepticism. In his broad view, Chris- 
tianity was so absolutely reasonable that it could never be in 
real danger except through the cowardice or incompetency of 
its defenders. Thus he always felt and manifested a complete 
imperturbability of conviction and a massive repose of faith. 

Of another great teacher it was smartly but disingenuously 
said that " he awoke every morning with the impression that 
every thing was an open question." In a nature at once 
liberal and shallow, the eager and hospitable reception of new 
forms of untried truth often produces such a result ; but such 
was the depth and force of Dr. Fisher's intellect that, instead 
of losing, he seemed to gain stability of conviction with every 
conflict. He used often to tell us that his early morning 
hours were his golden hours for clear thinking ; and when 
he came into class fresh from that morning bath of lumi- 
nous meditation, the most thoughtless and least reverential of 
us felt the spell of his intellectual and spiritual mastery. 
And with all his stability of conviction, there was a con- 
spicuous absence of narrowness and bigotry. It was from 
him and in him that I first learned to surely know what 
I had before greatly doubted, — that mighty convictions and 
fervent faith could coexist with the broadest and most catho- 
lic intellect. It is a common effect of culture to lessen con- 
viction, as of intense conviction to lessen charity ; but in his 
well-endowed nature the breadth of his knowledge only deep- 
ened his faith, and the fervency of his faith only broadened 
his charity. On the value of such a character impressed upon 
the future apologists and homilists of our church, I need not 
here enlarge. 

Looking back now at the general course of Dr. Fisher's 
teaching and influence, certain definite convictions with regard 
to the genius of Universalism seem to me to underlie and give 
distinctive character to his whole work. I can only hint at the 
more salient points, and that in merest outline. 

1. Universalism is in no sense an abandonment, nor in any 



256 



APPENDIX. 



degree a modification, of Christianity. It is a radical and 
genetic restatement of Christian doctrine. 

2. Universalism is not, therefore, as it becomes formulated 
into sj^stem, to develop a science of hermeneutics under the 
operation of which the great specialties of the Christian revela- 
tion are to be reduced to the desert-level of rationalism ; but it 
is to build up a characteristic exegesis, in which the essential 
and permanent truths of the Gospel shall be liberated and 
sharply distinguished from the accidental and temporary forms. 

3. Jesus Christ is not the official bearer of a mysterious and 
indefinable offer of exceptional and undeserved security to the 
few ; but the Divine and intelligible teacher of self-evidencing 
and demonstrable spiritual truth to the many. 

4. Christianity is not, therefore, a w^eak proffer of the final 
alternatives, — heaven, hell, — but a re-announcement of the 
eternal moral order of the universe, showing that invincible 
necessity of personal righteousness which issues from the in- 
exorable fidelity of God's love. 

It was settled with him, and formed distinctive features of 
his teaching : — 

1. That the Universalist body w T as not to assume the Chris- 
tian name while rejecting the Christian facts ; but that it was 
to develop a Christian church, firmly based upon its enlightened 
interpretation of the Christian facts, and following implicitly 
the leadership of Christ. 

In 1870 he wrote as follows : " It [the Gospel] is neither ex- 
hausted nor superseded, but retains in this nineteenth century 
its transforming, organizing, conquering, exultant power. 
Those who believe it, though they be divided into corps, 
divisions, regiments, and companies, are yet an army, with one 
common watchword, one clear, intelligent aim, and a well- 
defined theory of life, hope, and duty. While those who in 
Christian lands reject it are a disorganized drift of discordant 
elements, whose only unity is in their disbeliefs and scornings 
of the book and its gospel ; with no practical theory of life, 



APPENDIX. 



257 



work, or hope, stumbling over the problems of the philosophy 
of thirty centuries ago, and, as a body, able to stand or cohere 
only as they can lean heavily against the imperishable walls of 
the Word inspired and revealed by the Redeemer of the world. 

" Man will have a leader. No great positive work, of the 
common mind and strength, has ever been successfully or long 
sustained without. . . . Look, then, at the situation and pros- 
pects of those who reject the historic Christ. They proclaim 
him ' dead/ and every week their work is to bury him. Their 
creed and ritual is but the service of a prolonged and ever- 
renewed funeral. They can no more fill and close that open 
grave than could the daughters of Danaus fill the penal sieves 
with water. They are laboring to bury what is not dead, and 
cannot accomplish their purpose. But, were it accomplished, 
what then would remain for them to do but to look wistfully 
into each other's faces, and then go, every man to his own 
house ? " 

2. He believed that the mission of the Universalist Church 
was larger than that of intellectual criticism or culture, and 
deeper and more enduring than that of doctrinal reform. That 
the church should become a mighty regenerating force, a " power 
of God unto salvation," exalting, inspiring, and controlling the 
character and conduct of mankind, was at once his conviction 
and his inspiration. He deplored the tendency of a sentimen- 
tal orthodoxy and an equally sentimental liberalism to obliterate 
or modify the distinction between good and evil. He believed 
not only that that tendency did not inhere in Universalism, 
but that Universalism would be corrective of it. And he lost 
no opportunity to caution us against contentment with a merely 
theoretical position or a negative basis. " What penalties," he 
asks, " must fall on the denomination which, through false hu- 
mility or religious mawkishness, practically plants itself on 
such a position ? The penalty of inconclusiveness as to the 
practical finishing of her faith ; to be ever establishing premises, 
but failing of conclusions ; to be always heaping up materials, 

17 



258 



APPEND IX, 



but never building trie bouse ; perpetually to spell tbe sylla- 
bles; but never to pronounce tbe word ; to find often her sons 
and daughters brought to the doorway of the Christian Church, 
yet not daring to enter ; their thoughts discovering, in some of 
the highest doctrines and institutions of Christianity only du- 
ties which they dare not assume to perform, or privileges which 
it would be presumptuous in them to claim ; to have them re- 
main friends or servants of the Christian household, but not 
sons and daughters of the family." 

3. It was his conviction that the immutable foundation of 
Universalism was in the ethical perfection of God. This is the 
central doctrine of the church. He rejected utterly the notion 
of an antagonism between God's attributes. Justice and mercy 
are but modes of the Divine love ; and the welfare of man 
finds its only possible security in the perfection of the Divine 
character. 

" What," he exclaims, " shall be said of him who, by making 
God's justice unjust, and his mercy unmerciful, falsities the 
standards of the universe, and changes the centre of the beam 
on which all things are weighed. But he does this who asserts 
that God has made his highest work in such a manner that it 
proves a stumbling of Almighty Power, which, should it fall, 
crushes the universe in ruins ; and a faltering of Infinite Wis- 
dom, whose perplexity would bewilder every orb in its sphere, 
and quench the light of every intellect that catches its rays 
from him. He does this who, proclaiming the endless anguish 
of human souls, makes the Infinite Wisdom to plan, and Al- 
mighty Power to build, that which when completed is only a 
colossal ruin." 

Instead of that, this : " Paul, from his mount of vision, look9 
backward to Abraham, to Adam, to the foundation of the 
world, and sees afar off, like the river-head in the mountains, 
the source, and traces the primal courses of God's eternal pur- 
pose. Down to his own time he pursues it, and sees how those 
purposes flow in full volume about himself and those around 



APPENDIX. 



259 



him ; lie turns then toward the future, and looks forward with 
the same great thought (who can deny it ?) and sees the whole 
creation of man coming into the liberty of the glory of the 
children of God." 

I give these as samples only of the definite and character- 
istic convictions which were the basis of his teaching. There 
was nothing loose, formless, or erratic in his mental constitu- 
tion ; hence, nothing uncertain or indefinite in his instruction. 
His influence on the developing life of our church, through 
seven school generations of young ministers, can hardly be 
overestimated. He did, certainly, largely and beneficently 
mould our church life ; and his steady hand upon the helm 
steered many an ardent but wavering mind " past the rocks " of 
scientific and rationalistic scepticism, and steadied its voyage 
for life across the open sea of Christian truth. 

I recall some characteristics of his special instruction to us 
as preachers. 

1. Never did he fail to detect and discourage every attempt 
at " fine writing," and every disposition to cultivate a style 
that would attract admiration to the speaker rather than atten- 
tion to his message. Keen as was his desire to make us effec- 
tive preachers of the Word, and appreciative as he was of every 
felicity of utterance, I doubt if the fashionable phrase, " a bril- 
liant preacher," was ever on his lips. How merciless he could 
be in the " dissecting-room," where sermons were read for criti- 
cism ! How ruthlessly would he slaughter our ambitious and 
redundant sentences, our tropical rhetoric, our " white bears ! " 
Yet his own fancy was exuberant when he gave it the rein, his 
own style often strikingly picturesque and illustrative ; and he 
encouraged those qualities in us, when subordinated to and 
assisting the purpose of our thought. An affected, formal, 
and didactic manner was his special aversion ; perspicuity and 
force his ideal excellencies. He said : " It is in the power of 
but few to attain that degree of eloquence which has such en- 
trancing potency as £ the applause of listening senates to com- 



260 



APPENDIX. 



niand,' but almost any man who has any call to the ministry 
may become master of a clear and compact expression, simple 
and cogent, which, with sincerity and a ( meek, unaffected 
grace," may give him a powerful hold, not only on the hearts, 
but on the intellects of his hearers. They might not worship 
him, — no good man would desire any thing approaching it, — 
but he would have all the essentials of a healthy and lasting 
usefulness, and power to be indeed a worthy minister of Him 
'who went about doing good.' n 

2. The urgency with which he always insisted that we should 
preach our convictions and not our doubts recalls a recent 
'timely word to the same purport : If any man is tired, let 
him lie down ; if any is faint-hearted, let him turn back from 
the battle : if any is too blind to see the divine glory, let him 
not employ his no-vision to guide mankind into the ditch. 
The blowing of the east wind is more welcome and helpful 
than the prophesying of one who mistakes his own collapsing 
purpose for evidence that the Holy Ghost also is a spent force, 
or that the ever-living TVord is an outworn fable." 

3. With an affectionate and solemn urgency, he would con- 
stantly remind us that we were to preach Christ, — not about 
Christ ; that we were to announce Christianity as a message, 
not to discuss it as a problem ; that we were not the special 
pleaders for a system, but witnesses to the truth : that the dis- 
section however complete, and the analysis however subtle, of 
trivial topics, was a frittering away of powers and time that 
ought to be more nobly employed in the " large utterance of 
great truths, and the great enforcement of great duties/' In 
proportion, he would say, as men lose faith in the great central 
truths of .Christianity, is their tendency to preach side issues, 
and refine upon little matters, — a tendency sometimes strongly 
marked in what are called " liberal " preachers. 

To preach to conscience, as the one faculty that will always 
respond, even when belief is paralyzed and faith is dormant ; 
to preach to individuals and not to masses, since salvation is 



APPENDIX. 



261 



a personal and not a social matter, and is effected by bringing 
the soul into direct relations with its Maker, " it alone with 
Him alone ; " and to preach in love, — adopting the maxim of 
the Abbe Mullois, that " to address men well they must be 
loved much," — these are some of the points which he would 
repeatedly enforce, and which, with grave solicitude and tender 
earnestness, he sought to incorporate with the very substance 
of our souls. 

I recall some of the personal traits which made his uncon- 
scious influence often stronger and deeper on his pupils than 
his deliberate and intended effects. 

Yet, in stating these personal traits, I do not mean that I 
am making any adequate analysis of the man. The sources of 
Dr. Fisher's power were deep and manifold. His strength lay 
not in one thing, but in many. No analysis will detect the 
central secret of his character. Like a deep, broad and stately 
river, many mingled affluents made up its volume and its 
power. 

But we all felt his genuineness. And no position more tests 
this than that of a teacher in daily and intimate contact with 
his pupils. No mask can long evade their prying eyes. Any 
assumption is sure to be detected ; any weakness, vanity, pre- 
tence, is sure to be found out. Dr. Fisher wore no mask, and 
needed none. There was nothing to conceal. The simplicity, 
transparency, reality, and genuineness of. his nature, were of 
themselves irresistibly attractive. 

He was a good hater of things mean and hateful. His large 
capacity for indignation toward wrong-doing was all the more 
effective, because — too deep and intense to break out in gusts 
of passion — it always manifested itself in a " steady love of 
good, and a steady scorn of evil." 

Along with his masculine sense, there went a certain cu- 
rious unworldliness. Careful and even shrewd in all his deal- 
ings, his very shrewdness seemed to be purely a matter of duty ; 
and his unaffected contempt for tricks of policy and mere 



262 



APPENDIX. 



worldly advantage was so constant and undisguised that, when- 
ever such notions were hatched in our more worldly heads, we 
learned not to submit them to him. 

He had no regard for mere cleverness or ci smartness " in his 
pupils, and many a snub did our vanity receive from his hu- 
morous assumption of an incapacity to understand remarks 
addressed to him in that vein. How well I remember the 
twinkle in his deep blue eyes, when he had reduced one of us 
to the ignominious necessity of explaining a pert allusion or a 
fancied witticism. Yet he loved the play of genuine wit and 
humor ; and some of you will recall the surprise and delight 
with which we listened to a literary lecture from him, which 
first showed us on how light a foot his exuberant fancy could 
range, when untrammelled by the more serious responsibilities 
of his position. 

The simplicity and reality of his religious feeling showed 
itself in a special abhorrence of cant. The more earnest he grew 
in his addresses to us on the themes of personal and vital re- 
ligion, the more natural- and unconventional his phraseology 
became, — simple, pointed, clear, direct, childlike, flowed the 
steady stream of searching and inspiring talk. 

Medical students are apt to lose, in the dissecting-room, their 
reverence for the human body as the temple of the soul ; and 
theological students, in their class discussions of God as the 
central factor in a scheme of theology, are in danger of losing 
their reverence for his living Personality and Nature. This 
tendency Dr. Fisher effectually counteracted by the unaffected 
seriousness and reverence with which he. always approached 
the discussion of the Divine attributes, — mingling with his 
logical and acute analysis a sentiment of awe and devotion. 

And if some of us, in our rawness and immaturity, were in- 
deed at times inclined to think that he had too much reverence 
for a " gray-headed truth v simply because it was gray-headed, 
and for time-honored doctrines which we thought were rather 
time-fehonored, it is nevertheless certain that he did perma- 



APPENDIX. 



263 



nently impart to us a profound veneration for the eternal truths 
upon which his own faith was so grandly builded, and for those 
divine sanctions by the force of which he bore, — - 

"through all this tract of years, 
The white flower of a blameless life." 

And who of us will ever forget how his prayers, beginning with 
subdued and rapid utterance, grew gradually in depth, fervor, 
force, and solemnity, until they made the unseen world seem 
the only reality, and this life a mask of painted shadows ! 

Remember, too, how he sometimes rose in the conference- 
meeting, with a manner and utterance full of tenderness, 
gentleness, and sweet humility, rising as he went on to force, 
condensed, controlled, and pervaded with such wondrous eleva- 
tion and purity of tone, that his words were like cut crystals, 
full of light and fire. No man ever lived who more truly and 
constantly realized that " underneath are the everlasting arms ; " 
and, in an age in which enlightened selfishness often, usurps the 
name of virtue, it is something to have felt the impress of a man 
who believed with all his heart in purity, goodness, and right- 
eousness, for themselves alone. 

Here let us pause, while tender and sacred memories of our 
teacher, guide, and friend are busy in all our hearts. His 
contribution to his age and his church is not written in vol- 
umes of learning and deep discourse ; but to us, his pupils, his 
record is, with Paul: " Ye are our epistle . . . written not with 
ink, but with the spirit of the living God ; not in tables of 
stone, but in the fleshy tables of the heart." May we for ever 
bear his power and purpose on loyal breasts ! Suddenly, in an 
hour that we thought not of, — my father, my father, the chariot 
of Israel and the horsemen thereof? — he was taken away out 
of our sight. Upon all who take up his work may a double 
portion of his spirit be. 



I VI 



